#goes insane about control and peace themes

[zorkaya-moved]

other's hand laid on seraphic-kissed woman's lap, a hand so caring finds the crown of silver one's head, tenderly cradled in the mockingbird's palm. cast aside your worldly burden! my voice shall grant you peace! my voice shall grant you heaven! it needs not be spoken, for it may be surely understood. she seeks only to shield hearts from the terrible collision with truths unbearable! one heart. oh, one heart does suffice!

seraphim tenderly hums. cast aside your worldly burden! her intent beckons. it is an invitation to delve into an abandon, for sure. to let go is to abandon oneself to the possibility of drifting away, in manner not much departed from a figure dancing upon ice, or a figure carried away by the currents of a river. my voice shall grant you peace... if you trust it to do so!

@scrtilegii

When you know death, you will cherish life. When you know lies, you will cherish truth. When you know screams, you will cherish silence. When you know apathy, you will cherish any semblance of emotion.

As the seraphim sings, the eyes of the apostle close to enjoy the solitude of this moment. The voice of heavens sings, but it plunges all others screams and hardships into the oblivion. This is the song of horrors and fantasies, this is the power of the voice that Robin possess and Zarina Sokolova allowed to partake in. The blessing of Origin will keep her safe from harm, but it cannot heal the life of voices within her mind. This beauty causes her to rest within the embrace of the galaxy's beloved, her tender touch silencing the demons with just one word. How horrifying, how terrifying her power is. There is no army that can withstand this voice, no mortal can deny her beauty and her gentleness. And these hands, oh, they can reach out for her neck and squeeze it.

Perhaps, she'd let her.

Someday, when the mission comes to an end, she'd let this beauty's fingers wrap themselves around her slim neck and leave marks on the Emanator's skin. Apostle, Emanator, all is the same just named differently. The Origin smiles before beautiful lives, and Robin's existence is both beautiful and tragic. Elysia would love this woman and would embrace her burdens, if only she'd allow to witness Origin. It makes Zarina wonder, hearing the heavenly voice, if Robin would wish to witness the Aeon of Origin. Someday. They'd look heavenly together, dancing and singing as petals from Land of Origin would dance around them.

Peace comes when her voice fills the cracks, entering her mind just deep enough to make the horrible headache suffice. It's gentle, it's tender, and it's terrifying. However, the Apostle knows no fear before an Angel. She let her guard down to taste peace in the moment of endless suffering, to know that dead cannot reach her ears for just a moment when Robin's song rings through the hardships. How beautiful it is, this gentleness and kindness. How horrifying it is, this power and this control. But Zarina persists, lying on the other's lap and enjoying the touch, enjoying the meaning, enjoying this moment of [silence] within her head. The voices of pain do not scream, the voices of another mind do not interrupt, the voices of the Herrscher no longer persists.

It makes her smile, but a smile at the understanding that this heavenly song killed the voices inside her head. It saved by killing, by erasing, by oppressing. And the Apostle of Origin finds it beautiful. She finds it glorious as golden eyes hide behind her eyelids, lips curled into a small and peaceful smile. Finally, there is peace in her head for a moment while the melody echoes.

Oh, protect me, beloved angel. Sing to me and let me be selfish to hear your voice. Grant me salvation that my God (Aeon) cannot, if only until my heart finally rests.

"Lay me to rest when the time comes," she speaks, eyes opening as she reaches up to let her fingertips touch the cheek of an angel. Her eyes of ichor shine, the one who beholds an icy lily will be glad to hear her song before her destined path ends. "Allow me to embrace you how no one else ever did."

As the apostle is sent on a mission, the angel will witness.

[cherrygorilla]

Zack's Basic Info

As seems to be a recent theme with me, I really struggled coming up with faceclaims for Zack. I think Chosen Jacobs (first pic) is the one that feels the most right in my head, but I could see the others (Miles Brown, Noah Gray-Cabey and Jaden Smith) all working well in their own ways too. No one else seemed to be able to get that mischievous grin of his right lol.

Name: Zackary Ghalen Davis - his mom named him Ghalen, meaning calm in Ghanaian, because he was such an easy, quiet baby. But then he learned how to speak and she's never had a moment of peace since.

Nicknames: He pretty much solely goes by Zack. He'll occasionally get a (very cringeworthy) 'Zacky boy' from his dad, and, in the very few interactions he's had with Ethan, he's had 'Zack-attack'. But 99.9% of the time it's just Zack. 

Age: 14

Date of Birth: 30th of November

Zodiac: Sagittarius

Birthstone: Topaz

Nationality: American, Ghanaian and Greek

Sexuality: Straight

Birthplace: St Anthony's Hospital, St Petersburg, Florida

Current Residence: Pelican Drive South, St Petersburg, Florida

Occupation: Middle school student and a newspaper delivery boy

Talents/Skills: Karate, basketball, having insanely good aim (not used for many things thus far in life other than crushing at paper football games in class), never failing to make his friends (especially Bentley) laugh, packing away ungodly amounts of food (his portions are HUGE if he has any control over it), and knowing many, many random facts, mostly about dinosaurs

Birth Order: Middle of 3

Siblings: Jordin Nicole Davis (17) and Angelo Cameron Davis (9)

Parents: Jamal Dimitri Davis and Effia Morowa Davis 

Signature:

Height: 5' 10'' when he's fully grown, but 5' 4'' for now.

Race: African American

Eye Colour: Dark brown

Hair Colour: Dark brown

Glasses or Contact Lenses: Neither

Distinguishing Features: He's almost always got some sort of pen ink on his hands where he's scribbled something down he needed to remember, a weird little squishy lump of skin from where his stitches didn't heal properly after he fell off a skate ramp and took a gnarly chunk out of his knee, and a slightly chipped front tooth from that very same incident.

Mannerisms: Compulsively needs to fill silences with senseless ramblings, unbelievably loud snoring, cracks his knuckles at every available opportunity, and almost always stands with his hands in his pockets.

Health: He’s lactose-intolerant but he does not give a fuckkkkkk lmao - if anything, it just encourages him to eat more dairy. But besides that, nothing really, he's pretty healthy. His mom wouldn't hesitate to (lovingly) diagnose him as a lazy-ass though - and she'd probably pull him up on his terrible posture whilst she’s at it. 

Hobbies: Skateboarding, karate, picking arguments with Kona, binge watching horror movies, eating through entire family size bags of chips in one sitting, collecting random stickers (which he covers like 90% of his belongings with), and wasting all his allowance at the arcade.

Greatest Flaw (in their opinion): How argumentative he is. He has very strong opinions and is super strong-willed, which can be a good thing, but can also make things really difficult when he runs into someone who disagrees with him. He can take it really personally and get really fired up, even if it's not that big of a deal, just because it's hard to process other people's views. Sometimes he doesn't even care what it is he's arguing about; sometimes he just likes playing devil's advocate because he likes to debate with people. His mom always pulls him up on it though, because sometimes his enthusiasm for challenging others can come across as rude, which is never usually his intention. 

Best Quality (in their opinion): His passion. Even though it can land him in trouble sometimes, and brings out his biggest flaw, he is proud of how much he dedicates himself to the things he believes in. He never half-asses things he cares about, he'll put his all into it no matter what. And that extends to his relationships too - he'll stick by his friends through anything, and will defend them until he's blue in the face if he has to. He can be perceived as lazy because of how laidback he seems, and can be lazy when he wants to, but if he wants to do something, whether that's for himself, or for someone he cares about, he won't be able to focus on anything else until it's done.

Biggest Fear: Dying. One of his cousins died in their teens and the shockwave of grief it sent through his whole family really freaked him out. He wasn't necessarily super close with the guy, but he'd spent a fair amount of time with him at family gatherings growing up, so the abruptness of his death really shook him up and changed his whole perspective on life. He very much adopted that 'needs to live life to the fullest' mindset, which is probably why he can come across as a little overbearing and intense sometimes. And he can act rather impulsively, but he'd rather that be the case than living with regrets if that looming cloud of grief were to come and swallow him whole again. 

Hogwarts House: Gryffindor

Favourite Ice Cream Flavour: Rocky Road

Favourite Colour: Red

Favourite Number: 3 - one of the many reasons as to why the triceratops is his favourite dinosaur

Favourite Movies: Nightmare on Elm Street, The Karate Kid, or The War of The Worlds (yes, he and August geek out over it together, and yes, it's adorable)

Favourite Songs: You Should Be Dancing by the Bee Gees, School's Out by Alice Cooper, It's My Life by Bon Jovi, and One Love by Bob Marley

A place they want to visit: Egypt, he's got a real fascination with the Great Pyramids so he'd love to be able to see them in real life.

[fantasyinvader]

If that anon is still around my little corner of insanity here, here's another point.

The idea that Flower is about "true peace" comes from Byleth's solo ending, where it's said they'll keep fighting until they achieve it. Meaning, Fodlan isn't at "true peace" at the end of the route. What's more, Caspar's endings in Japan reveal that Edelgard has the Imperial army conduct missions in other nations where they're often out of control while Hubert is putting down anyone who may be a threat to Edelgard's rule which includes putting down multiple rebellions from the shadows while spying on the population. If Byleth seeks "true peace," they're fighting the wrong people.

But there's another aspect of this ending as well. Byleth's is still seemingly fighting after the other characters have already had their pages written in the history books. You can have it alongside stuff where the cast get old and die. This is only mitigated by Byleth having a romantic partner, and even then it's referred to as a long and scary battle (Bernie seems to have severe PTSD in the Japanese version where she was forced to fight against her will). Byleth going after TWSITD alone has worse results than Byleth working with someone else to take them down, which goes against the ideals Edelgard is reshaping society around. Byleth needs others to take TWSITD down, and even then they're left with no direction or other goals in their life, simply following the lead of their spouse, whereas Byleth does have goals to work towards in the other routes where they're given some form of leadership role (which also goes against Edelgard claiming that Nabateans can't be given any power over humanity, and as such Byleth doesn't get any lands or titles in exchange for their service. Edelgard discriminates against your ass).

Even more of a kicker is that Byleth's "legendary sword" in this scenario is revealed in the Jeritza ending to be the Sword of Seiros. They lose the ability to use the Sword of the Creator, take up Rhea's blade while the Empire makes it sound like it was always their sword indicating the Empire might be spreading it's own false history. But even then, by following Edelgard Byleth needs to use Rhea's weapon in order to accomplish their mission in an ironic twist.

And again, the devs themselves said that the themes of Flower weren't "true peace," rather believing something different from everyone else (and going against the worldbuilding, due to them confirming it supports Silver Snow) and getting rid of everyone who stands in your way.

[creativecuteness]

One of a Kind Vamp Chapter 1: Multi-fandom Madness

Summary: A Rainy day at White Chapel is perfect for a lazy day of watching TV and indulging in hobbies with a good friend. Or Dakota wants to know what other interests Rory has other than Sci-fi.

(I know nothing about Star Wars and Star Trek so that's why this chapter doesn't follow the full prompt.)

“Hey, Rory, what are you into?”

Rory’s focus on the TV was shattered as he turned his attention to his best friend, Dakota Natalie. It was a mundane afternoon, a calming rainy day where Rory didn’t feel like leaving the house; not even Benny or Ethan felt like leaving the comfort of their warm beds. deciding today was a perfect lazy Saturday, and for once, Rory agreed peace and quiet was a rarity in Whitechapel. It was insane that the supernatural was living under their noses this entire time, and now that they got a taste of it, it seems it’s became unable to leave them alone—not that he minded. Becoming a vampire was one of the best things that has ever happened to him; however, that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten what it’s like to be normal like today.

Watching TV mindlessly: Check.

Popcorn and other snacks nearby: Check.

A best friend by his side who loves him more than anything: Check.

Dakota recently moved into town a few weeks ago and has become glued to Rory’s side since day one. He was very well aware of the younger girl’s crush on him, and if he was being honest with himself, he was thrilled to finally capture a girl’s heart with his irresistible personality, even if there was a ton the two didn’t know about each other yet.

“Sorry, I didn’t hear you. What did you say?”

Dakota, who was lying upside down, righted herself and looked at him. “I asked, What are you into?”

“Oh, that’s easy. I’m a huge Star Trek fan, though Star Wars is pretty cool too.”

“Well, that I know, you and Benny debate about it all the time; I rarely hear you talk about anything else. Surely you have other things you’re into.”

Rory smiled; he knew Dakota wasn’t a sci-fi fan or a Marvel or DC Comics fan. (To be fair, she always gave the blond Magical Girl vibes. He had to ask if she’s a fan of that genre.) But the fact she was interested in knowing what he was into made him grin ear to ear. It felt amazing having a friend who generally cared about his interests, even if she didn’t hold the same opinion.

Sure, Ethan and Benny did care; they’re best friends for a reason; however, they’ve known each other for so long that they know the ins and outs about their hobbies, favorite games, favorite shows, and even music tastes. So, it was nice to indulge in his latest obsessions with someone new, plus he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t interested in the things that caught Dakota’s eye.

“Well, you already know some of my top picks. I love sci-fi, superheroes, comic books, and video games. What else do you want to know?”

“What type of video games are you into? Shoot ‘em ups, RPG’s, racing games?”

“All of the above, really.” Rory replied, “Depends on the theme and controls, and I guess an engaging story helps too. But I’m normally cool with anything that catches my eye. What about you?”

“Well, as you know, I am a huge Kingdom Hearts fan, but I also love the classics like Mario, Kirby, and Pokémon. I never really got into Zelda and don’t like shoot-em-ups. However, I guess I’m like you; I like whatever catches my eye, regardless of genre.”

“What about TV shows? Have you ever engaged in any fandoms?” Rory wondered,

Dakota shook her head. “I lurk around at times and have dabbled in the fanfiction side of things, but I’ve never actively engaged in conversation over it. In fact, I tend to stay away from shows that have toxic fanbases. It ruins the show to the point where I can’t even touch it. As for the types of shows I like, it depends, but I prefer comedies. I hate crying in front of people, so I tend to stay away from anything that might be sad. The same goes for movies.”

“I feel you on the toxic fanbase thing; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten into arguments online over the stupidest things. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t chat on those sites anymore.”

“What about fanfiction?”

Rory tilted his head side to side, “Sort of, I wrote a few self-insert fic’s when I was younger, but I’ve never posted anything. You should see my old stuff; it’s pretty cringe I don’t think I have the skills to write anything better. Plus, all my energy is focused on school right now.” The teenage vampire looked around to make sure his mother wasn’t in earshot and leaned close to whisper, “Not to mention keeping my vampire ninja identity a secret.”

Dakota burst out laughing. She knew how much Rory loved his new quote on quote superpowers; it was fun seeing all the creative ways he could take advantage of them. Not to mention, extremely adorable.

“Hey, do you know what cosplay is?” Rory questioned, forcing Dakota to calm her laughing fit.

“Yeah, I think I’ve heard of it; it’s like dress up but more detailed and expensive; do you do it?”

“No,” he stated simply, “I wish, but money for the material is way too expensive. Plus, with the DIY aspect of it, I could never I can’t even sew.”

“Emily or Cindy could help you with that. Emily’s really good at making clothes, and Cindy’s been known to dabble with it too; she’s great at the finer details, like smaller stitches.”

“Doesn’t Emily hate me?”

“She doesn’t hate you; she just hates the fact I have a crush on you."

“That doesn’t really help, but good to know.”

“Sorry.” She smiled sheepishly.

“Don’t worry about it; hey want to head up to my room and rock out to some music?”

“Sure! Whatchu got?” Dakota sang with a wink,

“Have you heard of the band Single Tear? They’re a heavy metal band I’m super into.”

Dakota grimaced, “Oh, I know them. Emily accidentally blasted one of their songs at three a.m. She was editing her vlog when the headphone wire fell out of the jack. Scared the living daylight out of us. Can’t say I’m a fan.”

And Rory couldn’t blame her in the slightest. “Yeah, their stuff isn’t for everyone. Do you have an artist in mind? I mean, aside from Alvin and the Chipmunks, which I’ll totally listen to if it means I can see more of your dance routines.”

Dakota blushed, feeling touched that Rory was becoming their biggest fan, but there was a different band she had in mind. “There is one band I wouldn’t mind listening to. You ever heard of the band Gorillaz? Emily and I stumbled upon them a while ago, and I’m obsessed. I cannot stop listening to them; they’re so good, man!”

Rory’s eyes lit up. How could he not know them? they were a favorite of his too. “Yeah, I know them; I didn’t think you’d be into that style of music.”

“Honestly, I didn’t either. But they’re so addictive, I can’t stop drumming on my knees whenever I listen to them.”

“Well, what are we doing sitting around here for? Ready to rock?” Rory asked, holding his hand out,

“Am I?! I’m ready to rock roll and lose control, my beloved.” She grinned, taking Rory’s hand, and he led her upstairs.

Sure, the two had different interests and may not have had the most in common, but Dakota never judged him for his geeky hobbies or brushed them off as weird or a waste of time. And for that, Rory was grateful to have such a chill and easy-going bestie.

Not to mention, knowing him better gives Dakota more reasons to add to her ever-growing list as to why she loves him.

[redrobin-detective]

Danny’s obsession is protection which he’s mostly able to fulfill by keeping Amity Park safe from ghosts. But it also means that, even in his every day life, he’s a bit of a paranoid mother hen. It only gets worse once he gets powerful enough that a lot of the ghost attacks drop off meaning he needs to manage his obsession in other ways. It started small but as he took on more and more responsibility, it became almost impossible to manage.

He’s that annoying friend who always asks people if they’re drinking enough water, had enough to eat and sleep. He starts carrying water bottles and snacks with him and his core just flares if he sees someone who starts to look tired out. He develops fine tuned instincts about the health and safety of people around him. His friends and family can never lie to him about how they feel, he just knows if Tucker skipped breakfast or Jazz started her period. He nags and fusses until they’re better. Sam and Tucker have had to physically restrain him from trying to fist fight with Coach Tetslaff when he sees that she’s pushing overworked kids too far. While Danny takes his own bullying with ease if he sees any other A-lister so much as looking the wrong way at a kid Danny will cut loose. The jocks find new ways to entertain themselves because Fenton is way too scary and strong when he goes feral. Bullying at Casper High is suddenly nonexistent. 

While he’s the one who’s usually using it, he keeps a pretty extensive first aid kit on him at all times. The amount of times he’s run over to kids who’ve fallen and put cartoon themed bandages on their boo-boos or wrap up scrapes. Anyone who’s injured in Casper has just gotten used to Fenton kind of hovering in the periphery for a few days to make sure they’re really okay. It was Danny who quietly talked down a blubbering Dash after he badly dislocated his shoulder during practice. He’d been halfway across the school when he’d just known and dead sprinted to the field. He talked through the process and popped the shoulder back in place before the school nurse could get there. He got into a lot of trouble for that but when Dash got out of the hospital, he asked Danny to be the first to sign his soft cast.

His obsession tells him he needs to save people and it pulls at him constantly. He’s able to temper it somewhat but as the ghost attacks dwindle he goes a little bit insane with anxious energy. The citizens of Amity thinks it’s cute but kind of annoying not knowing how it eats at him. People tell him he’d make a great doctor or teacher but, to Danny, they weren’t a good fit. He wouldn’t reach as many people with those professions, it wouldn’t be enough to satisfy the burning need to save and protect and preserve that burned like a blizzard in him. He complained heartily but becoming Ghost King finally allowed him some peace in that manner. He could not only watch over the ghosts and ensure they had controlled, satisfying afterlives but could keep the entire planet safe. 

[beevean]

Other details I like about ShTH:

- you can’t play The Doom and Lost Impact in one playthrough. They represent two very different memories: The Doom, which is on the Semi-Dark path, is the day G.U.N. raided the ARK, a memory spurred by Black Doom to feed Shadow’s misanthropy. All 3 missions are highly stressful in-universe: either you go on a rampage to stop the raid, you make the effort to grant Maria’s selfless wish while you’re being attacked, or simply try to escape as quickly as possible - in all 3 cases, you get a glimpse of the fear and rage Shadow felt that day. Lost Impact, which is on the Pure Hero path, is a more peaceful bonding moment with Maria: you either help her taking down the Artificial Chaos before they hurt people, or you simply go check on Professor Gerald (who was still a kind old scientist back then). These two memories are irreconcilable.

- Lost Impact is the only level without a Dark mission. Shadow has confirmed himself to be mostly a hero, and if you reach that point, the “evilest” ending for you is the Semi-Hero Dark ending, the one where Shadow vows to protect the ARK. You can’t really do evil deeds by that point: at worst you make sure the Professor is okay and you don’t help Vector finding the computer room.

- On the other side of the spectrum, The ARK is the only level without a Hero mission, for similar reasons. I’m going to elaborate more on the Pure Dark paths later, but if you reach this point, it’s too late to truly redeem yourself - at best, you can reach the Semi-Dark Hero ending by turning neutral, not helping Black Doom further but not really doing anything to stop him either (you don’t even fight him after the Black Comet Hero mission - he has no need to, you’ve helped him enough), and Shadow simply comes to a standstill declaring that no one can tell him what to do.

- The Pure Dark paths (both Punishment, Thy Name is Ruin and Prologue to World Conquest) are the most consistenly and competently written of all 326, to the point I’m sure it was just a happy accident, and the sequence of cutscenes clearly puts Shadow’s corruption on display.

Shadow’s descent into madness starts when he attacks the G.U.N. troops who, at that point, aren’t even targeting him, either because he genuinely trusts Black Doom or because he had just finished to flash back to the day one of them killed a friend of his, and he is still enraged.

His second test comes in Digital Circuit: does he help his best friend Rouge, or Black Doom again? Yep, Shadow’s desire to harm humans trumps his relationship with Rouge.

In Cryptic Castle, he helps Eggman by putting up the defenses against the Black Arms (a subtle way to regain control?), but the doctor ends up attacking him regardless, likely proving, in Shadow’s confused mind, that Black Doom is his only ally and he can’t trust anyone else.

Then Shadow reaches Central City, where you can start to see him absorbing Black Doom’s insane ramblings about how awful of a species humankind is: Shadow is just... sitting there, with murder in his eyes, agreeing with every word and ready to destroy a city with his bare hands.

Then he’s sent to the ARK, and you can see from his face that his thirst for destruction hasn’t been quenched yet - now he’s willing to defile his old home to activate the Eclipse Cannon and erase Central City from the face of the Earth.

By the time he has infiltrated the G.U.N. Fortress, his mind is at peace: he has accepted he is a weapon of destruction (or that “he was made to bring order and justice to the humans” in the English translation, which is... unsettling). Now, you would expect him to either join Black Doom or become a hero at the very last second depending on the mission you choose, right?

No. The Pure Dark endings are much worse than that.

If he keeps helping Black Doom in crushing the G.U.N.’s defenses, he’ll decide to straight up destroy the world, ignoring the fact that Black Doom needs humanity to live in order to feed on them - “humans do not deserve to live”, “they’ll pay for what they’ve done”, he says. If, on the other hand, he decides to help Rouge at the very last second... he’s still insane and full of hatred. He didn’t do it because Rouge managed to redeem him, he just realizes he has no use for Black Doom and decides to conquer the world for himself, and who knows what kind of dictator he’ll become. Remember, the ending where Shadow accepts to serve Black Doom is the Semi-Dark Dark one. On the Pure Dark paths, Black Doom manages to corrupt Shadow so much that his pure misantrophy surpasses his own. His plan has gone horribly right, and no one wins: Sonic and G.U.N. have failed, Black Doom has lost his chance to turn humanity into cattle, and Shadow is too far gone.

(another set of paths that are also chillingly consistent are Revenge at Last and Ego’s Awakening: Shadow goes neutral on Cryptic Castle, helping nor Eggman with his defenses nor Amy who just wants to find her friend, and exterminates all G.U.N. soldiers on the ARK to protect Maria. This still sends him to The ARK level, full of contempt for the humans after reliving such a painful memory)

- These posts about certain tracks (plus the Music section of this one) explain well why I feel half of ShTH’s OST is simply genius. I see many people gushing about G.U.N. Fortress and Lost Impact (as they deserve), but no one seems to appreciate The Doom - read what I’ve written above, and picture it with this soft music. Another detail that I really like is The ARK’s theme (a level that you can only reach by being pure evil and gives you no possibility of fully redeeming yourself, where you can use the Eclipse Cannon to destroy a city) is a remix of Final Rush’s theme (Sonic’s last level in Adventure 2, where the hero has to stop the Eclipse Cannon from firing). Talk about an ironic echo.

- and to complete my gushing about The Doom, which is a great stage in all but actual gameplay, this nifty detail noticed by @dizzydennis. If you want proof Black Doom is genuinely corrupting Shadow’s mind, here’s him inserting himself into his memories in a rare moment of good cinematography.

[chitto]

I Analyzed All Of the Songs on Ranboo’s Lore Playlist and Here’s What I Learned.

We can pick a few themes out from the songs: 

Time

Fighting something inside of you 

Alluding to a villain arc 

Transition of a person 

My biggest theory from all this is that c!Ranboo is a time traveler from the future (probably before Mizu but after the Haunted Mansion). He traveled to the past, November 27th specifically, to stop c!Tommy’s exile. We can assume that in c!Ranboo’s future, c!Tommy burned down c!George’s house by himself but when c!Ranboo went back, he got caught up in it, thus creating a time paradox. (Evidence from the songs Merry-Go-Round of Life, all songs of Hawaii - Part Two by Miracle Musical, and The Ruler of Everything). Now knowing he is the cause of c!Tommy’s exile, c!Ranboo feels immense amounts of guilt for his actions, the regret keeping him up at night (Ain’t No Rest for The Wicked). This mental stress is something that has resulted in the beginnings of insanity for c!Ranboo (The Mind Electric). 

A villain arc is very plausible for c!Ranboo in the near future, most likely brought up by harm coming to c!Tubbo or Michael (Killer Queen, Mr. Bad Guy, I Can’t Decide, Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked, and Live and Let Die) 

Full Analysis on Each Song Under the Cut: 

(All Song Lyric Analysis Credits go to the wonderful people on genius, I merely fit them into the context of the DreamSmp and c!Ranboo) 

Prologue (StarKid) - A simple ticking clock. ARG trailer tie in as well as even more references of time. 

Introduction to the Snow (Miracle Musical) - Comes off an album that (storywise) has the listener loop over and over the songs in the album, as a time paradox. 

Dream Sweet in Sea Major (Miracle Musical) - Final song in the album (loops). Occurs in three movements. Tells the story of a sailor that gives himself up to the mermaids. Lyrics don’t give much in terms of hints at anything. 

Turn the Lights Off (Tally Hall) - About a journey through puberty and adolescence (??) perhaps could be changed to fit. However main name of the song is meant to convey accepting differences and confronting fears, something c!Ranboo doesn’t really do. First line also says ‘Don’t go in there, you’ll become one, Freaky creatures, monster party’ perhaps relating to the enderwalk/possession c!Ranboo goes through. 

The Mind Electric (Miracle Musical) - The song starts off in reverse, the singer speaking backwards. Once the song straightens out, we’re shown that the protagonist of the song is a mentally unstable man trying to figure out what triggers a specific fear. The second verse then goes into a young child who’s been held trial for insanity. The child and the judge then have an open dialogue throughout the rest of the verse until the child is sent to an asylum. The song concludes with insane yet peaceful thoughts from the child. Obviously I’m not a psychiatrist but doing some light research into insanity (NOT psychosis, as insanity is more of an umbrella term for unstable mental state while psychosis is a specified disorder) you can see a few signs of insanity that could be applied to c!Ranboo. ‘Denial of obvious problems’ Many times c! Ranboo has dismissed or downplayed his issues and problems, most notably when he’s found in a panicked state by c!Sam who asks him if he’s okay, to which c!Ranboo replies that he’s fine. ‘Delusions or Hallucinations’ this is a big one as throughout the Doomsday arc, c!Ranboo spoke to c!Dream in his panic room, only to realize he was talking to no one. ‘Dramatic changes in sleeping habits’ This is more of a reach as we have no actually confirmation but it could be assumed that c!Ranboo’s enderwalking could be disrupting his sleep patterns. 

Live and Let Die (Paul McCartney) - a song about a once young person who used to say ‘Live and Let Live’ but has now changed their maxim to ‘Live and Let Die’. Could be said that as people grow older they grow more cynical. Granted the phrases mean the same thing but one seems much more pessimistic. 

The Ruler of Everything (Tally Hall) - Once again a song about time, the entire song meant to symbolize how time controls our lives (once again feeding into a time paradox theory). The song has a verse that is a man and Time itself singing. The song then starts to speed up, representing how short periods of our lives can be in the grand scheme of things. ‘Do you understand that mechanical hands are the ruler of everything’ This lyric of the song is meant to mean that time (the mechanical hands of the clock) are at the root of everything, once again drawing us back to a time motif with Ranboo’s character. This specific line could lead us to believe that c!Ranboo is being ‘controlled’ by time, aka perhaps caught in a time travelers loop. 

Merry-Go-Round Of Life (Howl’s Moving Castle OST) - While the song itself is an instrumental without words, one could do some digging into the story of Howl’s Moving Castle, spoilers for the film in this analysis. In Howl’s Moving Castle, there is a sequence in which Sophie goes back in time to find Howl, seeing him as a young boy. She calls out to him, telling him to find her in the future, before getting taken back to her time. It seems pretty insignificant until you remember that in the beginning of the film, during Howl and Sophie’s first interaction he says to her, “There you are, sweetheart, sorry I’m late. I was looking everywhere.” thus representing that Howl has been looking for Sophie his entire life after she called out to him in the past. So what does this mean for c!Ranboo? Well its just more time motif and even more time paradox themes. But what even is a time paradox? A time paradox is when somebody who has traveled back in time, becomes a part of the past and causes the events they set out to stop in the first place. Perhaps this means c!Ranboo traveled back in time to stop c!Tommy’s exile, as it was a catalyst event that resulted in many problems on the server (L’manberg’s second destruction to name one) before getting sucked into the events that caused it himself. 

Killer Queen (Queen) - Really can’t say too much for this song as the song is meant to convey how “that classy people can be whores as well” (Freddie Mercury). Freddie also said that anyone else could call their own interpretations of the song as well. I can’t really think of too much about the song that could be molded to c!Ranboo. 

Mr. Bad Guy (Freddie Mercury) - This one is more interesting as the bridge of this song details how Freddie is ‘Mr. Bad Guy’ and that he can ruin people’s lives and many people are afraid of him. This could sound like something c!Ranboo would say in relation to someone trying to threaten the people he cares about. c!Ranboo going to any length for those he cares about (most notably his family) is something that recently cc!Ranboo has tried to drive home, making it a tweet under his character’s lore thread on twitter. 

Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked (Cage the Elephant) - The main line of this song is a bible verse that means that those who are sin-free can sleep well at night knowing they haven’t done anything wrong but those are commit sins need to keep one eye open at all times. Perhaps c!Ranboo believes that he has done something wrong that keeps him up at night. It could be tied back to the time paradox theory by saying that c!Ranboo is kept up at night by the fact that he couldn’t stop the bad events from happening, even becoming a part of them. 

The Bidding (Tally Hall) - While the song itself is about an auction in which men are trying to “sell” themselves to a woman, I would like to call attention to one specific verse. ‘I’ve been training like a Pavlov dog,  Let my independence out to take a hike, All you gotta do is activate my bell, and I’ll fetch you anything you like’. The first lyric calls reference to Ivan Pavlov, who ran a conditioning experiment on dogs, training them to associate the sound of a bell with food, whether they actually got food or not. The last two lyrics I find particularly interesting as we have seen somebody “activate” c!Ranboo. c!Sapnap. After c!Sapnap visited c!Dream in prison, c!Dream asked c!Sapnap to deliver a message to c!Ranboo. The message being ‘:)’. When c!Sapnap repeated the message to c!Ranboo, c!Ranboo immediately switched and began to speak in enderman language before wandering off. He then spoke to c!Sapnap in chat saying, in ender, “Doomed are those who try to run, for it always catches up eventually :)’. This is one of many incidents of c!Ranboo being switched into his enderwalk state, in which he does stuff for c!Dream such as burning down the community house. 

I Can’t Decide (Scissor Sisters) - This song is a upbeat song about a psychotic killer trying to decide on whether or not he should kill his victim. This song could relate back to c!Ranboo’s relationship with c!Dream. c!Ranboo has been very cagey on whether or not he would like c!Dream, most recently being very eager to break into prison and murder him. This song could also hint towards a possible villain arc for c!Ranboo. 

Stardust Crusaders (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures OST) - Unfortunately, this song is another instrumental. And even more unfortunately, I don’t watch JJBA so I can’t comment on what the song could be alluding to. Stardust Crusaders is the name of an arc of the show but reading through the plot summary on Wikipedia doesn’t turn back anything that could be tied to c!Ranboo. 

A Mask of My Own Face (Lemon Demon) - While the song itself is relatively simple, a man singing about how he wants to wear a mask of his own face to confuse people, a few lines have sparked certain people to examine the song deeper coming to the conclusion that the singer wants to cause chaos and controversy. The mask of his own face would allow him to mask his identity, as no one would wear a mask of their own face, while still allowing him to be associated with the chaos. For c!Ranboo I can’t really see this pointing to anything but the Syndicate. c!Ranboo really does believe in their core value of dismantling the things on the server that are bad but also he knows many people he’s close to who are at odds with members of the Syndicate, most notable c!Tubbo. However this could be rather lose as cc!Ranboo is a big fan of Lemon Demon and who hasn’t put a song from their favorite artist on a playlist even though the vibe doesn’t necessarily fit. 

Stranded Lullaby (Miracle Musical) - Another song of the Miracle Musical album Hawaii - Part Two, which loops itself over within the story. This particular song is about a sailor sailing through a cerebral ocean, which may or may not represent time itself; the sailor being a time traveler who had a mistake in his time traveling. This once again brings us back to the theory of c!Ranboo as a time traveler. There is also a line I would like to call upon, ‘Aimless thoughts and papers blown around, A million moments meant remembered rest in deep dark sound’. These lyrics are meant to relate to memories and how truly fleeting some may be, just papers floating in our brains eventually lost to time. This obviously can relate back to c!Ranboo’s memory problems, which are a known side effect of time travel, as told to us through the story of c!Karl, the only other time traveler on the server (excluding c!Connor who is only theorized as a time traveler for right now). 

Hidden In The Sand (Tally Hall) - This is slightly complicated as the song has two meanings. On the surface, the song is about a man who falls in love with a woman who leaves him, however the man is still in love with her. But in the music video, a new meaning can be found. The music video shows a cruise full of people, all very nice and kind until the ship begins to sink and the real, selfish, sides of the people is revealed. ‘Hidden in the Sand’ is meant to symbolize that a persons true nature is covered up by their outward acts and personality. This could apply to c!Ranboo, as he is outwardly very polite and gentle, growing attached to every animal he finds and refusing to kill any Enderman but he could have a whole other personality to him that we don’t know about. If songs such as ‘I Can’t Decide’ and ‘Mr. Bad Guy’ are any hints, we could theorize that c!Ranboo has a secret dark side to him that could be exposed in the events of his family being threatened. 

Now I’m Here (Queen) -  No statements or theories about what the song means or any of the lyrics. 

& (Tally Hall) - This song, as with others off this particular album, deal with opposites. The whole chorus of this song is about certain opposites such as dark and light or cold and hot. Relating back to c!Ranboo, perhaps this song is meant to tell us that c!Ranboo is a foil of a certain character. Possibilities could be c!Dream and c!Ranboo, as c!Dream is very against attachments towards things and is a very outwardly violent person while c!Ranboo is attached to almost every animal and enderman (not to mention c!Tubbo and Michael) and is a very peaceful person, or perhaps c!Ranboo and c!Karl, the two time (theorized) travelers on the server. c!Karl has a stronger control over his abilities and seems to retain most of his memory fairly well so far while c!Ranboo perhaps can’t control his power and has short term memory loss and can’t remember where he came from. 

I’m Gonna Win (Rob Cantor) - This song is a description of a fight between the singer and his inner demons, the fight resulting in very physical injuries for the singer. This can relate back to c!Ranboo, as he could be fighting the demons of his enderwalking state. This song has a very cheerful outlook on the fight however, as the singer is very confident in his abilities and knows he will win. c!Ranboo isn’t always the most positive, sometimes believing more in the pessimistic outcome but this could be a new leaf for c!Ranboo or a goal of his to be more positive. 

[macgyvertape]

Castlevania kinda had a pacing problem

spoilers for all of Netflix’s Castlevania. I haven’t seen much analysis for the show on tumblr, im honestly curious if discussions I had with irl friends mirror what fandom talks about

tldr: Castlevania seems inconsistently paced from season to season, and within season as well, leads to a lot of characters motivations feeling unclear so characters repeatedly explain why they are doing something while they’re doing it

overview of the seasons:

S1 I know somewhat of a test for Netflix but it has good main trio character establishment and sets the scale of the conflict

s2: pretty complete emotional arc for most characters and resolves the plot of killing Dracula while setting up additional characters to continue the story. Isaac, Hector, Carmilla all established with the audience as characters whose story would continue

honestly I would bet this is the most popular season

S3: s2 did a bit of worldbuilding, but this season really fleshed out the world with both a wide range of locations and exploring the question of “what now, Dracula is dead but vampires and night creatures remain”.

There were basically 4 plot threads: 1) Sypha/Trevor investigating the cult & Saint Germain; 2) Hector & Carmilla (also introducing Lenore, Striga, Morana); 3) Isaac’s journey of revenge & self discovery; 4) Alucard sits around the castle and is betrayed.

overall characters roughly feel like they are in the same place if not worse. A big criticism I saw at the time, which hold up after rewatching this before s4 is nothing felt resolved for the main characters

I would say this season is where the pacing issues start to become apparent, juggling 4 plot threads that lack a central theme or even mutual character connection. If there was a central theme it would be “humans are awful to each other”. The Judge doing Hot Fuzz style murders, The Wizard in the tower, Sumi & Taka

S4: it starts with the same 4 plot threads, though upfront it is made clear that the plot theme is “people are trying to resurrect Dracula”, and the progression of the plot works to resolve unrelated plot threads until the main trio reunites for the boss fights. To me and my friends watching it was obvious that the show would reunite the main trio, the question was how and how far into the run time.

Season 4 is why I’m writing this essay, for the past 2 days I’ve been like, yeah that character sure explained their motives repeatedly maybe with some philosophical discussion, but it’s just such a weird place considering where they were in s3

Alucard’s arc:

Where he was left in season 3, it was after killing people he had trusted in self defense and impaling their corpses. It was clearly meant to parallel Dracula’s dislike of humanity. However overall his character lacked a proactive motivating force.

Honestly the most interesting thing I found in s3 was Alucard clearly misses Sypha and Trevor, however they don’t miss him or refer to him

One reason Sumi & Taka betray Alucard is for the secrets and power of Castlevania. After inviting the village including St Germain who Alucard was warned of into the Castle, Alucard makes 0 effort to secure anything, not even his personal childhood room. Guess he really learned nothing

Discussing St Germain, I think it’s funny that they had a several minute flashback sequence for his lost girlfriend (who doesn’t have a name or a voice actor), to remind the viewer of who he is, and to justify how he’s suddenly back and down for murder.

In s4 there is the call to help the village, and the walk back to the castle is a montage of Alucard opening up to Greta and becoming friendly literally overnight. He laughs off the impaling, and basically all of the darker things he went through in season 3, which has me asking what was the point of his season 3 arc then? 

Honestly writing this I realize the biggest parallel he has with Dracula is the call to action from a bold woman with a dramatic entrance speech which then leads to a romance

Isaac’s arc:

in s3, with all the other themes of “humanity sucks” I was always unsure if the townspeople were meant to appear irrational while attacking a larger force instead of letting him pass through an leave, or him not caring about how he’s provoking them is meant to show his insanity

ive seen the discussion elsewhere, curious about the Discourse here

is s4 Isaac has the whole monologue about how he now has agency but him gaining that agency was his s3 arc. In s4 he’s already at the point of accepting it. By the end of s4 he’s one of those who comes the furthest from his first character appearance to his last.

s4e5 where of Isaac attacking Carmilla in Isaac’s 2nd appearance had him resolving like 4 plot threads at once (Carmilla, Striga& Morana, Hector, and Isaac himself).

but i do wonder if Trevor, Sypha, or Alucard even know any of these people exist. I think not

I was honestly confused if I missed a scene from his dialogue about building something and what is inherent nature, to “My plan has evolved, my plan is now conquest” because he only conquests the one castle and the rest is left unclear

Upon rewatch the connection there is “killing [the wizard] felt just ... I liked that feeling”, so the show says that Isaac in the end attacked Carmilla for the sake of justice and not revenge.

Isaac in his last conversation expresses the theme of s4 “build something new on these old bones, where people can live for the future”

however, his arc honestly feel scenes were cut, and then dialogue was written around it. He’s the only living character who doesn’t show up in the epilogue and the sentient night creature “what if I could empty hell” dialogue was some of the most interesting worldbuilding. Night creatures with sentience and possibility of regaining memories!!!!

The Council of Sisters & Hector’s arc:

oh I’ve already seen s4 discourse about Lenore/Hector while searching for character analysis, a chunk of it seems to be rationalizing the absolute difference between how s3 ended with these characters and s4. It was extremely confusing for me and my friends; wondering if 1) was Hector showing more emotional intelligence than before and putting on a facade to cover up hatred? Nope 2) did more time pass than 6 weeks for there to be some kind stockholm syndrome? No, Hector seems fine to let Lenore kill herself

The slave control ring: played up in the climax of s3 and easily solved s4. s3 Lenore says if he tries to harm them, flee, or take it off it would cause crippling pain, in s4 Hector just easily cuts off his own finger.

for a control ring that they take time to show a version being on the Rebus, it doesn’t do much controlling of Hector

also guess the definition of “do harm” just refers to direct action

Lenore in s4: has no purpose in conquest, has that useless remarked on by multiple characters, is imprisoned, then kills herself after a genre aware philosophical discussion. This essay is long enough, but what the fuck happened to this character who ended s3 clearly physically and sexually abusive? Seriously this was one of the biggest writing changes to the point where she was treating Hector as an equal. Compare her last words in s3 “shh the real people [vampires] are talking”. The change in the relationship is actually something I would have taken being shown, or atleast told of what exactly caused this change other than the vague “you adopted him”

Striga&Morana get the best arc of the Council. 3 scenes: the tent argument, Daybreak armor fight & argument resolution, declaration of feelings and turning away. You could argue Castlevania is plot to be connective tissue between fight scenes, but for all the dialogue about human resistance in different seasons it was nice to see it. Overall the scenes were short but had a lot of showing what their relationship is not just telling,

unlike Carmilla. For as much hyping up as they did with her, and as much power as she had, she only appeared in 2 episodes and no other group except Isaac knew about her military conquest.

the map scene where she states her motive for conquest of wanting to take things from old men is the key example of how characterization became tell not show. How interesting was that monologue compared to the past seasons flashback to her murmuring the old vampire lord, or all her repeated insults of men/man-children that shows how she judges people??

That monologue had to carry the weight of justifying the Sisterhood bonds falling apart as well as why her motivation changed from building a human pen from Styria to Braila to world conquest. I think it did so poorly

Sypha & Trevor

really Sypha & Trevor have the main plot in the show. I checked and post season 1 the only episode they don’t appear in is s4e6, which is entirely devoted to the Isaac, Hector, and Council of Sisterhood arc. Their partnership and adventures are the main plot of the show.

Its easy to see what Trevor’s arc was over the show: coming to peace with the deaths of his family, taking up the mantle of being a Belmont, and starting a new family with Sypha.

With Sypha I actually had to scroll through tv tropes for what is her character arc, and I guess hers is disillusionment from adventure and life outside the speakers? My friends joke that Sypha’s magic is what the plot demands to look cool in a fight, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Tangent: the ending of their arc was easy to guess: as soon as Trevor went to fight the final boss alone I literally said “oh i bet Sypha’s pregnant, Trevor’s doing a heroic sacrifice, theyll use the unexplained magical dagger mcguffin, and 60/40 odds that he goes through an infinite corridor to outright come back vs just the implication he might come back”

I guess my final thought of the show, was overall the SUPER Final Boss got my by surprise. It was a good twist I enjoyed. Not that Death appeared, I had guessed that from the heavy foreshadowing, but I was surprised by who it was, because I had thought I thought the characters involved feeling shoehorned into the plot was just more bad writing. The Alchemist who put St Germain on the path or murder for no discernible motive for helping? Sure gotta move the plot along. New Dracula court member Varney who has a whole introduction with almost every character he meets and banter about his smell? Sure thats basically how all characters talk with a snarky and acerbic voice.

[clairewolf]

i would love to read a meta about your thoughts on possession horror theory since all the main characters are possessed at one point its something I haven't seen much discussion on but is super interesting since they all have such different relationships with possession!

okay this IS something i have been going off about at all times so i'd love to but be aware my thoughts on this are always super disjointed and incoherent (which is why i make video edits bc i feel like i can communicate them there clearer by connecting different clips from the show to express my point) AND this will be under the cut bc i talk about how possession -> sexual violence is like. the core premise of how possession works in spn

SO like to start with. possession in spn is pretty much inextricable from sexual violence, not just because of the act of possession itself but bc of how the show talks about it. with the case of meg and her 1.0 vessel, it's extremely blatant — in 4.02 she says "Seriously, I'm just a college girl. Sorry — was. I was walking home one night and got jumped by all this smoke. Next thing you know, I'm a prisoner..." and that is just word for word about the most textbook sexual assault scenario people think up. so that's there on a metaphorical level already, but there's also a literal level with meg actually sexually assaulting three different characters (sam in 1.16, jo in 2.14, dean in 5.02 — all while assaulting the vessel she's in at the same time), and demon deals being sealed with a kiss is also another way that manifests (and the horror in that is especially heightened in cases like bela's demon deal — she was A Child and making that deal to Escape Abuse At Home To Begin With — and mary's deal — azazel was literally possessing Her Father at the time)

then you have angels where their premise is that they can't occupy a vessel without their consent. like that's their Rule. but getting a "yes" means so little when you are going up against an angel like that. they can't technically lie to get your consent, but they can misrepresent the truth all they want. angels are all powerful and they can promise their vessels that they'll fix all of their problems. sam tells lucifer that he'll die before saying yes to him and lucifer says he can just resurrect him, there's no way to avoid him. i think a lot about what castiel must have said to claire to get her to agree to become his vessel — in my head he told her that if she agrees, he will bring jimmy home bc that is exactly the kind of thing a ten year old in her situation would agree to. and then castiel goes to jimmy and tells him. "it's time to go home now. your real home. you'll rest forever in the fields of the lord." and to cas that is… Keeping His Promises. but i'm sure claire internally was going I DIDN'T AGREE TO THAT. so angel consent is really just as flimsy as straight up demon possession, to me.

aaaand then of course you have the sam and gadreel plotline wherein sam is LITERALLY tricked into saying yes and kept locked away living fake realities in his brain when gadreel takes over and dean keeps lying to sam's face so sam doesn't find out the truth about what is happening in his own body etc etc. gadreel manipulated dean into it by lying about his own identity and lying about how long he would stay in sam and just generally lying about everything. it's obviously extremely loaded and horrifying for sam who already has so much body/possession trauma behind him at that point (lucifer, meg, that kid in swap meat, etc you get the picture!) AND struggling with perception of reality post-hell AND on top of that gadreel like. kills sam's friend. while wearing his body. so sam has that to deal with forever on top of all of these other retraumatizing sets of circumstance. [sam is also the victim of the MOST sexualized language when it comes to possession, eg lucifer is wearing you to the prom eg you're like that prom date that keeps turning me down eg a dozen other lucifer lines i don't expect you want me to repeat in this post]

with dean i think a lot of problems stem from the idea that he is Made for doing x thing. like he's made for being a hunter he's made for watching out for his brother he's daddy's blunt little instrument. he Could change and he's constantly taunted by all the ways that he could change but he won't, bc he thinks it's too late for him, or that bad things will happen if he does, or he's just not capable of changing for good. so then you get the angels telling him that he's Made to be michael's perfect vessel and taunting him with visions of how he will ruin the entire world and everything he cares about if he says no and that breaks him down like, pretty fucking fast. and he survives season 5 without saying yes to michael at the cost of sam jumping into the pit with lucifer which is obviously. everything he was most afraid of happening anyway. and then fast forward eight years and alt universe michael makes dean his vessel anyway so the theme of Inevitability is just always There he really was Made To Be This

and then cas is, as i was talking about earlier with @eurydicecas (hi i hope u do not mind the tag), the only one who has been on BOTH sides of this like cas possessed jimmy and then lucifer possessed cas and it's like — the show never really gives the proper attention to how cas feels about all of this, we know he says yes because he's suffering from chronic I Want To Feel Useful To The Winchesters (dean) disorder but the aftermath of that is really barely explored and it's just a huge missed opportunity. but we were also talking about how with angels and consent it's like angels aren't always cognizant of how much they stack the deck against their vessels to control their consent — they think that as long as they can promise their vessel goes to heaven and lives in eternal peace in the end, does it really matter whether they die at 30 or at 80? the preciousness of human life and their time on earth is just NOT something they understand, and most of them don't want to understand, but cas does learn that! he grows to love the world like a human would and even spend time as one and feel as one and THEN… be used as a vessel as one for lucifer. like. by that point it's NOT jimmy's body it is HIS body he feels a sense of pride in it he feels at home in it and then he spends all that time waiting in the bunker kitchen in his brain its just fhfkgsmd. insane.

anyway none of this is truly meta it's just me getting a ramble of thoughts out about this because it is something i am extremely passionate about and love to talk about but it's so hard to get my thoughts about it out in an organized way bc at the end of the day it all just makes me !! so !! insane !!

[skamamoroma]

“I Told Sunset About You” - How did this show make COCONUTS emotional?!

I know some people have already written about this and it has been talked about a lot but I promised @londongirl2001​ that I’d write a ‘little’ post on it - this one is for you, love!

I feel like this is a good place to start where coconuts are concerned because not only are they a metaphorical representation of Teh’s developing feelings but also as a characterisation of Oh-aew and a representation of something ‘good’ and full of fortune and luck. When all considered, it’s such a damn clever way to connect all of the above ideas and also to send Teh into such a significant tail spin over a scent, dude ends up almost smothering himself more than once!

Two facts relating to coconuts are established pretty clearly from the outset:

Oh finds the smell of coconuts calming/soothing as his signature scent 

Teh hates them, finds the smell gross 

The fact they established this ‘conflict’ so early made the progress all the more delightful and painful to watch.

Coconuts representing Oh-aew was a genius move. Many things are used to symbolise Oh in this show but coconuts being his chosen scent, something is decided for himself and is kinda proud of is just so lovely, right? It’s another Oh thing to have a signature scent and to own it so hard. He’s like, yeah, this is my ‘thing’, it’s calming and soothing and I have adopted it as part of who I am. It’s so perfectly HIM and so like him to be so bold in terms of who he is. It’s sweet too because I don’t know about anyone else but throughout the whole show, I felt like Oh would smell lovely… like, it affected me knowing he always smelled of coconuts and now adorable and endearing that must be to people around him. He’s a Phuket boy, always at the beach and the idea he smells of something so connected to that environment made him even more magical to me.

So you have Oh characterised by this soothing, sweet, natural scent and Teh being entirely not into it. Hoon offers him a coconut as a sign of fortune and luck and Teh’s like, nah, GROSS, DISGUSTING, NEVER WOULD I EVER. He physically recoils when he smells Oh’s scented pen and it’s this clear sense of boundary. It’s clever because it’s that boundary that exists in terms of Teh’s head and how he views their connection… he doesn’t really have a sense of romance or ‘feels’ at this point but he still NOTICES. The moment in the evening when he drops Oh off at the pier and Oh teases him with his ‘smell my hair’, it’s this lovely extended metaphor for Oh’s presence being so full on for Teh. We know he feels SOMETHING. He paced the entire restaurant with jitters until Oh arrived and then offered himself and all of his tutoring tools especially for Oh, feeling oh so happy he could be someone special to him… and Oh’s there at the end of the night like ‘remember I smell like coconuts, Teh?”

And I feel we need to take a moment to just bask in the sweetness of Oh’s coconut pen. It’s kind of iconic at this point, right? (Apparently they made it especially for the show and it wasn’t bought so they really did go all out to make Oh the loveliest, didn’t they?)

I love that their tutoring sessions must have been coconut scented with Oh always using his pen and I kinda love that Teh must have got used to it over time as they spent more and more time together… but we get this huge shift in feelings where Teh’s all over the place trying to work out why he wants to be something other than ‘just another friend’ and then once he’s got to grips with that and tried to play matchmaker for Oh and Bas, why he goes a little insane at the idea that Bas is taking away ‘their thing’ and ‘their time’... his poor jumbled up brain can’t work stuff out and then we get the boat scene.

I’ve written about it before but this is my favourite scene in the entire show. I love it SO much for so so many reasons but I, personally, think this is the moment Teh fell in love. It’s the moment when Oh says everything above… and if Teh isn’t able to opem up then Oh reassures him that’s ok too and he’ll try to work him out. For someone like Teh who is just so very internal and confused and scared and knotted up, having someone say that is so precious, so special and you can see how much it affects Teh (his eyes in that gif above break me). I think quite a few things slotted into place in that moment as to why he was going out of his tiny mind a little… and IMMEDIATELY after that, when they’re playfighting we get the “why do you smell so good?” moment with Oh confirming it’s the same smell as always and Teh’s ‘oh shit’ moment right at the end of the episode because the thing that characterises Oh and the thing Teh really DOES NOT like have become something he finds yummy (I love that he uses that word!), stays up late to eat and smother himself with in the dark restaurant… hahahaha. I mean, it’s a sorry sight on one hand but, on the other, it’s so completely sweet. He’s really just smitten and still trying to sort his head out but if it reminds him of Oh, he wants all of it, right now, in any way he can get it. I laugh and smile and want to cuddle him at the end of that scene when you think he’s going to get up after he’s eaten the coconut and he just face plants back into it again. I LOVE HIM. The metaphor is so solidly established as… the distance has gone, Teh is fully in his feelings and poor guy is a mess because of it. It’s why all of his encounters with coconuts when Oh isn’t around are kinda weird and I love him for it…!

So thus begins Teh’s habit of smothering himself in coconut smelling items and after the hammock, after knowing Oh has feelings for him and kinda admitting his own, he’s doing his whole “I don’t know where to put myself or what is happening so I’m going to roll around on my beautiful rug and pace around my room and rub Oh’s Chinese notes all over my face because they smell like him and I want to see him and I’m going insane, help” thing. Which is totally another favourite scene for me…! BK kills those physical moments. Seeing Teh sit there with green ink all over his face like ‘FFS, I’m going mad’ before standing up and walking out of his room with the sole intention of having it in person rather than rubbing stuff all over himself as a replacement, hahahaha.

I love that when Teh has Oh close and don’t need to inhale actual coconut or smother himself with tutoring notes, they SHARE actual coconut juice. That shot of them riding the scooter with them both sharing the coconut juice, this two and fro. To me, it’s like this sense of when they come together, the confusion seems to always stop. By the end of moments where either one is confused or isn’t saying everything… they always manage to get to some conclusion by the end and so there’s no uncertainty, there’s this symbiotic sense of sharing and being together and kinda being a unit. So Teh happily drinking coconut juice and sharing it with Oh is so full of acceptance and closeness, it’s very lovely.

I ADORED that we got to see Oh washing his hair, clearly inhaling the shampoo smell and we got to see that he genuinely DOES find it calming. He clearly has this really soothing bath time and it’s this reminder that he’s actively sure of himself, kind of in control of who he is and how he conducts his life (which is why the red bra scene breaks my heart into pieces every time but that’s for another time)...

The final few moments for the delightful coconut metaphor are, for me, so emotionally laden with the themes of the show, it makes me a little misty eyed but DOESN’T MOST OF THIS SHOW. When we see Teh drive up to Oh as he’s starting his vow, Teh’s sidecar being loaded with a shit ton of coconuts is both beautiful and so symbolic of how he has genuinely changed. He’s no longer hating the smell, he’s not rubbing is all over his face to try to work out his feelings… he’s bringing the coconuts to Oh and doesn’t care at this point. Aside from the fact Teh fills Oh’s rucksack with coconuts - dude has to run far, Teh, what are you doing - there’s thing lovely sense of Teh knowing what they mean to Oh and how soothing and calming they are AND how Hoon told him they represent good fortune and luck. It’s so sweet of Teh, means a lot in the context of their story and is this emotive way for Teh to show how he understands himself so much more and how he can be so much more calm and focused on WHY he’s doing things. He seems so much more confident and in tune in those moments, almost CARING for Oh actively rather than in a chaotic OTT way or accidentally. It’s like he can work himself out now and is able to say ‘this is for you, I know what it means, I think you’ll need it”. AND THEN THEY DRINK IT TOGETHER, in sync and Teh of all people manages to almost flirt!! I know the in sync drinking was intentional from the documentary but I’d LOVE to know why P’Boss did that. For me, it’s this sense of them both being on the same page now… this sense of the fortune and health that the coconut symbolises being present for both of them in their personal growth to have them both together and both embodying this feeling of peace for a while.

And this is where I realise I’ve written an essay about coconuts… but ONCE AGAIN, this show makes everything meaningful and I love it so! 

[wastelander997]

Ideas for a Star Fox movie (long post)

Long post ahead but, like the title says, here's some of my personal ideas for a Star Fox movie

-We start the movie with Andross working in his laboratory at Cornaria, soon realizing he's... not all there. We see him mess around with globe, crushing it a bit in his hands. He wants the world, no, the galaxy to pay for something but we don't know what yet (his wife died due to the cornarian government being moronic and he wants to take it out on everyone and everything, but that's revealed much later)

- We cut to Fox as a kid. It's nice and peaceful at first, with James playing with his son in their backyard while Peppy and Pigma are there. Fox's mom goes to the car to go to the store, but Fox forgot to give his mom a bracelet he made for her. He runs up to give it to her before she can leave... and the car blows the fuck up, killing Fox's mom instantly and probably traumatizing Fox for life. At this point, Andross makes his move, shooting up his lab with a laser pistol and trying to make his escape. Andross realizes the car bomb meant for James killed Fox's mom instead. James tries to take Andross out, but Andross manages to escape by shooting at James, managing to scrape his face and blinding him in one eye. Andross escapes while James comforts his son, Peppy and Pigma not exactly sure what to make of this scenario.

- Cut to years later, Fox is joining the cornarian academy in his father's footsteps, and sees his dad and his crew off on their mission to stop a corrupted Andross. We follow James, Pigma and Peppy until they get to Andross, where Pigma betrays them. He shoots Peppy just enough that he can't control his ship and ends up floating away, watching helplessly and calling for backup as James McCloud is brutally murdered by Andross. Help arrives in time to save Peppy, but it's too late for James.

-Fox... takes the news pretty hard. After a long while of mourning and a heroes funeral for James, where Peppy tries his best to comfort Fox, Fox demands that the government do something about Andross. Because its the government, though, they don't do anything because, to them, it's just one soldier. They're training a thousand more... or 999 more, as Fox gets kicked out when he attacks one of the government officials. Nothing too violent, just a good hard deck across the schnozz. This act catches the attention of Falco Lombardi and Slippy Toad.

- Falco and Slippy were both dropouts, Slippy because he wasn't the best flyer and a bit of a coward (even if he was a great mechanic) and Falco because he was too hot headed and headstrong, not following orders well, even if he was arguably the best pilot around.

- Fox, Falco, Slippy and Peppy end up journeying on their own for several years, establishing themselves as a mercenary service, until they find General Pepper (an old friend of Peppy's), who's ready to go to war with Andross. Just hearing Andross's name is enough to make Fox almost snap then and there, so he offers their services. Pepper's like "why should I except help from a bunch of drop outs?" But Peppy manages to convince Pepper by telling them about the team's accomplishments, and Fox's legacy.

- Pepper gives them the Great Fox, which is in pretty bad shape, and so is Rob 64. Star Fox wants a better ship, but Pepper says that this is the only ship he can trust Star Fox, as they're mercenaries for hire. Slippy is actually excited, just because of Rob, who he slowly rebuilds throughout the movie.

- This is where the crew finds the arwings, which are hidden in the cargo bay. The four look over the ships and realize they're excellently crafted for flight, maneuverability and combat. So, with a montage set to a remix of the Cornaria theme from Star Fox SNES, the four rebuild and revamp the arwings using supplies found around the Great Fox.

- Meanwhile, Star Wolf is offered work by Andross, which they accept cause it's good money. But Wolf and Leon don't know that Pigma betrayed James McCloud and Andross killed him, believing he died in a random fire fight (Wolf was James's rival before his demise, and holds a certain guilt that they never got a proper one on one duel. He and Leon are value loyalty above all else. )

- For the most part the movie is sort of a scavenger hunt, flying around and slowly uncovering Andross's plan, which is to use a satellite on Planet Venom to control everyone in the galaxy, and make them all his slaves, so no one can ever act irrationally again. No passion, no heart, anything. He essentially wants to make the galaxy full of emotionless robots.

-During the scavenger hunt portion, Star Fox proves their worth by helping Bill Grey (Fox's friend/roommate who actually graduated the academy) and the rest of the cornarian army defend Planet Katina from a massive attack by Andross's, and helps Katt Monroe (someone who wasn't part of the academy, but was friends with Falco and they meet outside curfew to just hang out) sneak through Planet Zoness when she says she has info on Andross's plan, which is how they both find out his plan and why he went insane and wants to destroy everything. (The wife story I mentioned WAY at the beginning of this)

- Fox puts on a content face and is normally the most level headed one in the crew. But when Andross contacts them before going to Venom, Fox (justifiably) loses his shit. The only other time he gets this mad (aside from the government fiasco) is their first encounter with Star Wolf on Planet Fichina earlier in the movie, where Star Fox actually loses because Fox gets filled with rage as Pigma taunts him, saying things like "Your father died squealing like a baby!". Fox loses his mind and tries to just fuckin obliterate Pigma, but he gets outsmarted and defeated by Star Wolf. The only reason Fox survives is because Falco and Peppy save him.

- The final battle begins on Planet Venom, with Star Fox, Bill, Kat, and a good chunk of the cornarian army doing a full frontal assault. It all goes smoothly, the Great Fox even helping out when things get really hairy, until they eventually reach where Andross plans to launch the satellite. They're ready to take it out, when Star Wolf attacks.

- When Wolf and Leon find out Pigma is a traitor and realized Andrew is obviously siding with Andross, they take matters into their own hands. During their final fight with the Star Fox crew, Leon and Wolf end up bailing on Andrew and Pigma, leading to those two getting killed by Slippy and Peppy respectively. Then Wolf challenges Fox to a one on one duel, the fight he never got with his father. Fox wins the duel, and Falco ends up destroying Andross's main satellite.

- They all begin to leave, but Fox hears his father tell him it's not over. As long as Andross is alive, he'll try again. So Fox does the only thing he can. He says he'll go it alone from here, going into Andross's base and letting the exit get sealed behind him.

-Andross, despite starting as a normal, if deranged, scientist, did an experiment to merge himself with his ship, giving him control with a thought. Unfortunately this proves to be harmful, over the movie he fuses with it, and that's how he becomes the giant monkey head and floating hands we know, which Fox sees as he flys in.

- Andross: "YOU WANT REVENGE, JUST AS I DO! THAT'S WHY YOU'RE HERE TO KILL ME!!!

Fox: "... I thought that was it. I really did... but no, Andross. I'm here to save the galaxy (goes into all range mode) killing you is just a nice bonus.

- Because the fights in a big circular arena, Andross tears the tiles off the wall and throws them at Fox, as a nod to his SNES days.

- During their fight, Fox and Andross talk about revenge, and how Andross let it turn him into a monster, while Fox just let it power his resolve all the more.

Fox: "and if there's one thing I can thank you for Andross... *he barrel rolls in front of Andross with fully charged up blasters* it's showing me what I will NEVER turn into." *and he blasts Andross on the face*

- Andross is a bitch though and pulls the self destruct technique, and it plays out like the ending to Star Fox 64, with Fox getting caught in the exploration, but seeing the ghost of his father and following it out. James goes on about how he and Fox's mom are so proud of him, and that he's become so strong. Fox sheds some manly tears here for good measure.

- Fox escapes and, again, it plays put like the ending to 64. Only a bit bigger, as EVERYONE was there to witness Fox save the entire galaxy. His crew, Pepper and his forces, Bill and Kat, even Star Wolf (all two members that remain) watch from the shadows with approval.

- The film would end with Pepper offering Fox a spot in the army, but Fox says they prefer to fly solo. Pepper, grateful for their services, gifts them the Great Fox and the Arwings regardless. The Star Fox team runs off, ending the film.

- There's a post credits scene. If you want, there could be two, one to set up a smash bros movie and this one, which I'd have in there just as a joke. Pepper goes back to his office to relax, only to realize Star Fox left the bill for their services. He opens it, practically has a heart attack, and faints.

So... there ya go. What do you guys think? Good? Bad? Would you watch it or burn it? Let me know, please.

Until next time, see ya'll later.

[cadomoisspokenfor]

Legion Rewatch Notes,

Chapter 8:

The Revolution

Aw man, how unfortunate what’s happened to Clark. I feel soooooooo bad. I mean he was just humble div 3 agent, doing his job, gaslighting marginalized individuals, participating in a genocide. How cruel of those bad bad mutants to injure him so badly. He was only actively about to kill David. What could he possibly have done to deserve any of this?

In other words, the Clark propaganda is not working on me this time. At all.

Maybe don’t participate in a genocide? Idk :/

I normally hate when people type in the passive aggressive way I have been for the past few paragraphs, but goddamn, Clark deserves it.

He’s not quite as damaged... but he’s kind’ve like old David here, from the over-medicated living with Amy timeline. Again, not quite as damaged as that though.

Clark considers mutants a “threat to democracy.” 🙄 “Moral panic” I guess?

“The second I walk outta this room, i’m going to war.” There’s that word again. Clark could just... not, and they’d probably have more time to figure out how to safely eradicate Farouk. But because he doesn’t and David busies himself with peace treaties, Farouk escapes and continues to be a problem for the next year. Clark has a family. A husband and child who love him to death. And he chooses war over them. This pattern will repeat in other character. Technically this isn’t even the start of it.

Suit change, new cane, same Clark. This really doesn’t change anything, does it? He could go through the rest of the series in the suit he wore before and it wouldn’t make difference. The valiant hero dressing for an expected victory over their long time (relatively) rival, only to be stopped immediately by an unforeseen development. This pattern will repeat... tragically.

Considering Farouk!David woulda just dusted them, it’s probably nice for his friends to see the real him is much less violent. He just stacks em like a Jenga Tower, no need for anything more.

Also, Wilhelm scream from one of the soldiers.

He’s also talking strangely. In an almost too calm voice. Measured. He talks like this a few other times, but I think those times have sadder context. Maybe they reflect on this moment. He talks like how he talked when Farouk was mind-melded with him, but his intentions aren’t evil this time around. I guess this is just his “fully in control” voice.

Clark’s literally shaking where he stands.

The zoom in to Clark’s blind eye is reminiscent to previous zoom in’s to Walter’s foggy eye. I guess Clark has taken on the role of Walter, artificially. Makes sense since he’s now the main D3 representative/antagonist like Walter was before.

“I don’t care if you save me, or the world, if you don’t save yourself.” David will eventually choose himself over the world, and Syd. And Syd will hunt him for it. Goes to show how much things change in s2.

“You know the most dangerous thing about schizophrenia?”

“You’re not-“

“The most dangerous thing is believing... you don’t have it! That’s the trick, the mind killer, your disease convinces you you don’t have it. So, for example, one day in the hospital you meet a girl and she has some friends, and they tell you you’re not sick. You have superpowers. And more than anything you wanna believe it because that means you’re not crazy! That means you can fall in love and live happily ever after. But you know if you believe it, if you surrender to the hope and you’re wrong, then... you’re never coming back.”

“I’m here. I’m real. The power is real. You gotta accept it, otherwise we can’t move on.”

“I was in Clockworks for six years. Drugged, doing nothing. Contributing nothing. And now, finally I can be useful! I can help! Don’t you get it? I am so sick of myself. This only works if it’s not about me.”

“David...”

So... that’s a lot. David believes being crazy means he’s not allowed to fall in love, or be happy. He said the same sentiment to Amy before Clockworks. This whole season and this episode especially push David into his full “I’m not insane, I won’t believe you if you tell me otherwise” mindset. At the very least that’s the stakes we’re playing with. If David fully gives into the hope, even for a moment, he believes there’s no possibility for recovery. No possibility for love or happiness. Why even try after that? It’s life or death for him. “If the choice is between life and death, I choose life.”

I know this is all already known and talked about and circulated 100’s of times over in various fan circles, but it’s probably the most important line for David’s character (the speech, not the Farouk quote). It’s very ableist, yes, but at least in the moment it’s coming from someone who’s just being too hard on themselves, and not ya know, being actively validated by the show.

2 episodes ago David talked about being worried about an “invincible” feeling. The dangers of mania.

We also know from that episode that David is more at peace in a calm, responsibilityless setting (with Syd) than he is out in the real world. David’s gonna take on a ton of responsibility, some of it’s gonna draw him away from Syd. At multiple moments throughout the show David has known his own mental health better than any of the others, and even warned them about potentially dangerous slopes he could fall down without their help. Despite this, David is pushed further down a path he tells them is dangerous and is still blamed for what happens in the end. I feel like Oliver’s line from ep4 is relevant here again, “We are the root of all our problems. Our anger, our confusion, our fear of things we don’t understand.” Everyone wants David to be something other than... David. A hero, a god, there projected image of a perfect partner. Not just... David.

Man, the more I realize about David’s self-awareness in s1 the madder I am at Syd for saying all that ableist stuff to him in s2 as if he wasn’t already down on himself 24/7. “It never occurred to you that you’re the problem not the solution?” It’s occurred to him like 5 times by now and has been shut down by you at least 3 of those times. I don’t understand.

What’s strange is... to my recollection David doesn’t believe he’s invincible at the end of s2. Or that he’s not sick.

“Saint David.”

“I’m not saying that. I make mistakes.”

“Say you’re gonna let them kill me if I don’t let them turn me into something different. Something easy. Something clean.” He sounds sinister here, but it is an indication that he knows he’s not perfect. In fact it sounds like he’s trying to appeal to Chap 1 Syd’s mentality. Your disorder is what “makes you you.”

So what’s the message here?

“We can’t just kill people. Or is that who we are now?”

“That’s who they are.”

The justification for killing here is that they’ll kill them if they don’t. Div 3 will kill Summerland if Summerland doesn’t kill Div 3, is what I meant. David has a similar justification for killing Shadow King in s2. Well, he has a LOT of justifications for it, but that’s one of them. Syd doesn’t hear it then either. She does attempt to kill David herself though. I don’t quite understand where the line is.

“He was gonna kill you, twice.”

“With that kind of thinking wars would never end.”

So... he shoulda just talked to The Shadow King when they were both powerless? Talking is what ultimately ends their fight in s3... hmm...

Cary is more humane to their POW than Melanie and Ptonomy are.

The show doesn’t necessarily say it was Cary’s fault for leaving Kerry. Either way though, Kerry needs some space.

Melanie calls David a “world breaker” and outright says now that he knows that’s what he is, div 3 doesn’t stand a chance. I suppose... knowing that... is why they so readily team with Farouk. They stood no chance otherwise. Even then, at least hide him away till after the intervention.

David’s floating meditation pose is seen more in s2 and A LOT more in s3.

He puts the onus of ending the war on Div 3. As if to say, “If things get violent again, it’ll be on you, not us.”

People keep talking about “gods” “waking up” and “realizing they don’t have to listen to us/them anymore.”

When Clark says it David’s first response is, “Isn’t that the history of the world?” But it’s a red herring (or something else) cause he follows it up with, “People of different nations, different languages, learning to live together?”

Clark is afraid if mutants gain power they won’t show humans mercy or equality. This is a common belief among fascist. The “they’ll treat us like we treat them” argument. Only it’s rarely self-aware, and it isn’t here either. Clark genuinely believes he’s not doing anything wrong. It’s all somehow in “self defense.”

Ah, so Farouk and Syd are connected psychically. He entered her mind whenever she entered David’s. He psychically affects her at multiple points throughout the series.

Syd here is convinced to help The Shadow King by The Shadow King. And while he’s wearing a mask at that. Yeah yeah, this pattern will repeat. But still, Syd gives in relatively quickly here. Perhaps she just... doesn’t fully trust Summerlands capabilities? They are legitimately trying to get rid of Farouk, but Farouk has proven time and time again how dangerous he is. Or maybe the “unmake soup” thing is just that convincing to Syd.

Clark’s still standoffish, but he’s slowly becoming more cooperative.

Syd rolled a 4 on that hero speech. She needed at least a 7.

I legitimately NEVER noticed before that Syd secretly turns on the lab camera feed for Clark to watch. They weren’t trying to show him that.

David gets a chance to look back at his whole life and recontextualize everything.

David straight up halts Farouk’s theme. If Clockworks Podcast is right and he can hear that whenever Farouk shows up, this would be evidence of it. Alternatively, he was halting Farouk, and the music halting was for the audience. A fun subversion of expectations.

David describes him and Farouk as, “The Sun and Moon.”

Division 3 sees it. The monster they saw on infrared. Clearly a separate entity from David Haller. Clearly of a different disposition than David Haller as David Haller has acted very differently and non-hostile compared to when they saw him roaming those HQ halls. The monster and David are not the same. They see who their real enemy is now.

It seems evident there was no chance of David beating Farouk on his own here. I wonder why? Was it true? Is Farouk just too ingrained in his mind? Cary said he was like a, “Computer virus. Learning his systems, bypassing his defenses.” Maybe Syd remembered that, and that’s why she believed Farouk. Cause Cary had already said something similar before.

Clark could've escaped, but he stayed, then tried to help fight Farouk.

I feel really sad Oliver got possessed. It never occurred to me before he could even tell Melanie he remembered her. Melanie’ll just go on thinking he never remembered her for a year.

And thus it’s established. There are “good mutants” and there are “bad mutants.”

No one checks on Ptonomy :(

The Lenny that’s talking to Oliver here is still just Farouk.

Did the orb go back as far as it could? Or was this time specifically chosen? If it was chosen, it was probably because it’s very soon after Farouk had been expelled from David’s head, and before the big race for his body starts.

[valentinecult]

Nagoriyuki’s Sword Theory Part 2.

Okay, so long time ago, I made a theory about Nagoriyuki’s sword being cursed. This is part one.

https://valentinecult.tumblr.com/post/633497545557016576/nagoriyukis-sword-theory

Recently, there has been new potential evidence I’ve discovered on his sword and it’s really some scary stuff. Before I dive in, I must remind you that this is only a theory, I may or may not be correct until we get official confirmation on how Nagoriyuki’s sword actually works. 

Let’s begin. In the first part of my theory, I’ve stated my belief that the sword is somewhat based off of the Murasama Sword Legend. The Murasama sword is a cursed sword that thirsts for blood and can drive those who wield it into a murderous rage. 

I also don’t think Nagoriyuki is a natural born vampire as stated in my previous post. I’ll dive more into that later, let’s talk about his sword and this particular detail that I find most concerning. His special move, Wasureyuki, we get a close up on Nagoriyuki’s blade as he caresses it. I rewinded and slowed down the animation because the reflection on the sword looked strange. Take a look:

You see it? Now you are probably wondering; ‘What the hell is that thing?’

I’ll tell you and since Guilty Gear has inspired me to look into Japanese folklore, this thing shook me to the core. Look at this image:

That is the same freakin’ image that is displayed on Nagoriyuki’s sword, just with slight changes. This is the Gashadokuro, a youkai or demon that takes the form of a giant skeleton. They are known for biting off the heads of people and drinking their spraying blood. The Gashadokuro’s body is made up of the bones of fallen warriors or people who died of starvation, which is why it is also named ‘starving skeleton’. The modified image on Nagoriyuki’s sword shows some horns on the skeleton’s head and the hilt of a sword. 

Here is my theory: I believe that the sword is not just simply cursed, it is possessed by the Gashadokuro demon. Unlike Slayer, when Nagoriyuki uses Blood Magic to unlock the true power of the sword (Blood Rage), his health decreases rapidly. See, Slayer can use blood magic without showing any signs of distress or danger to his well being, but Nagoriyuki...he is in likely a more dire situation than Slayer.

I think Nagoriyuki at some point in his life formed a contract with the Gashadokuro demon that resides in the sword. In theory, the deal could be that the sword would act as a magical conduit to help the vampire channel his blood magic better and utilize it more lethally. However, in exchange for using the full potential of the cursed sword, Nagoriyuki would have to lend his own life force/blood to the demon in order to deliver more powerful attacks. Think about it, when he goes full vampire mode in Blood Rage, WHY is this poor man’s health decreasing?! 

Reminder, in the old post, there was the image of when he begins to enter Blood Rage, he spews blood and the scariest thing is that the blood had a demonic face. 

Again, I don’t think it’s placed there just to look ‘cool’, it’s likely an implication or hint that the sword--or the demon is possessing Nagoriyuki. However, when Blood Rage is over, Nagoriyuki will put his mask back on. So, it is very likely that either Nagoriyuki has partial control over himself or the mask has a time limit on how long the sword can possess him.

Remember his theme song, What Do You Fight For? It talks about Soul Enlightenment in the beginning of the vocals. I’m pasting some stuff from my older posts here:

Soul Enlightenment’s definition varies, but what is it like when a person is spiritually enlightened? The qualities of that is that the enlightened person is a being of pure love and light, kind and compassionate. However, those qualities aren’t enough to truly define you as ‘enlightened’. 

You must purify your soul, heart, mind, and body. The back of Nagoriyuki’s kimono and the kanji written on his mask was written as ‘Heart’ and ‘Mind’, if I am correct. That matches the attributes of what one needs for spiritual enlightenment. 

Even so, the lyrics quoted: ‘You’re denying your thirst. Now it’s time to feast!’

This could refer to Nagoriyuki’s internal struggles on resisting his vampiric urges. As stated before, it’s speculated that his hannya youkai mask is special limiter that helps suppress his impulses. So Nagoriyuki might be struggling to control his vampire side and he could be using the culture and traditions of Bushido to obtain spiritual enlightenment to maintain self-control. Not only is he trying to maintain himself, but he is obviously very determined to keep fighting the demon in the sword. Keep fighting until it is his time to die. He might have a mindset of a warrior, someone who isn’t afraid of death, even though he is an ‘immortal’, a vampire. 

Onto his backstory, there is no information on Nagoroyuki’s past. He is simply called a mysterious swordsman that wields a sword that absorbs blood, but Daisuke claimed that he plays an important role to the history of Guilty Gear. 

If this is true, it is safe to assume that he’s seen a lot of pretty crazy events that transpired throughout the lore’s timeline. He certainly gives off the impression of an experienced warrior and a man with a story to tell. 

I believe his situation is no different from Sol Badguy. Sol was a human but due to some…bad circumstances, he became a Gear and as a prototype, he is insanely strong. Too strong for his own good to the point where he needed to create a limiter to suppress the Gear cells and his Gear instincts. There has always been this internal conflict Sol has with his Gear side. 

Nagoriyuki is probably a similar case. Long story short, he might’ve been human once in his lifetime, but the sword may’ve cursed him and turned him into a vampire--or at least something similar to one.  As a vampire, you would obviously begin to act out on your bloodlust and impulse to drink blood. Upon discovering the traditions of the Bushido Code of the Samurai, he studied it and tried to obtain inner peace with himself and his vampiric side. 

 While he does come off as a loner, I have doubts that Nagoriyuki built that mechanical mask by himself. He likely had help someone within the P.W.A.B. or something. Who that person is, it’s unknown and I’m not going to speculate it for we still don’t know all the details of the Strive story. 

Whatever the sword is, if there is a Gashadokuro possessing that sword and given it is named ‘starving skeleton’, I already know that this sword is very...very....VERY thirsty and hungry.

What is also weird is this stage in Strive:

Look behind Sol Badguy at the upper left, what is THAT?!  A giant skeleton? A Gashadokuro? Hell, there’s dozens more in the background further away! Is this a coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not, but with all of these subtle details, I can imagine that Strive might dig deeper into the lore of the Youkai and the Backyard. If these are actually Gashadokuros on this stage, why are there giant swords pinning them down? Who placed these swords there? And do they have a connection to Nagoriyuki? 

Until we get more info, all I can say is that this can be left up to anyone’s imagination. 

But with all these details shown, this further strengthens my theory of that sword being cursed and doing more harm than good onto Nagoriyuki.

That is my theory for now. Take it with a grain of salt, it’s all a theory, nothing else to it.

[cosmosrival]

just a quick vent post i wanted to make since i got a shitty lil experience on twitter and also found out about some things!! its just me talking about my take on kama and sakura fans (the Bad ones)

just needed to let it out <3

there’s this person on reddit whose content i genuinely despise since he babifies kama who is a character who Absolutely Should Not be babified and is one of the reasons why i wish kama’s first ascension didnt exist. but unfortunately: fgo. i usually have no problems with ppl’s headcanons since i can’t control their minds u know? same goes for ships, just do whatever u want (and if its gross keep it away from me lol). but the AMOUNT of traction this man gets on his fucking posts where kama is parvati and emiya’s daughter is so insanely repulsive to me ??? LIKE... I GET IT. YOURE PROJECTING ON EMIYA. URE A SAKURA FAN. U LIKE SHIROU AND SAKURA TOGETHER BUT THINK SHIROU IS A LOSER SO U SHIP PARVATI AND EMIYA INSTEAD. OKAY. THATS FINE. just PLEASE for the love of GOD, leave kama out of it and dont turn them into this clueless baby because thats NOT what they are.

for a while i was just stuck in this position since i’m petrified that the ENG fandom only sees kama as the Haha Baby Nugget ! baby Sakuraface ! servant and then look away. when all they took from sakura is her body and negative personality traits (BUT EVEN THEN. kamadeva had their own grudge and negative feelings about shiva so sakura’s just amplified those and didnt create anything new) meanwhile their backstory is so RICH and their trauma with shiva leaves so much room for growth and there’s so much in indian mythology that’s about kama and their death/the whole Becoming the Universe/galaxy godly state frozen when they reached the Throne thing too.

but im afraid. i’m going to be honest. i’m afraid of their NA release. because of the traction this degenerate got on his posts amongst the english fandom. i know everyone hates reddit but its still a popular website :/

but then the greatest thing happened and a mutual of mine dmed me and told me that he’s actually a p*dophile who made porn in that 3d japanese porn game of emiya and first ascension kama fucking and i felt like a weight got off my chest. SO HE’S A FREAK ! HE’S ACTUALLY JUST A FREAK!!! he then told me that he’s also extremely hated on 4chan which is... the website i didn’t expect to be on the same side with ???? but you know what, i’ll take it.

this isnt even a battle or anything... since the main reason why people will roll for kama anyways is that they’re a sakuraface, and i’m fine with that. do whatever u want!! love em however u want.

what im scared of is that ppl will literally forget their third ascension exists????? and that more disgusting content of kama’s first ascension will end up coming out because of dudes like him getting popular because they’re good at photoshop and sprite editing. and that kama will end up being babified ONCE AGAIN meanwhile they’re an ethereal god and are older than the world itself.

being a fan of the god is suffering but i’m glad there seems to be a large portion of the fandom thinking the same way i do fjdnfndjdfgfgdgft

im glad kama got sakura physical traits bc sakura is a pretty girl !! and they turned out really gorgeous thanks to redrop. but sometimes i wish they werent a sakuraface.

this kinda got messy and i wont be checking this for mistakes since its really just me venting but... yeah. i like exploring kama as being this mess of a servant, god, demon and half human ? the ooku event added a lot to their character and i think the sakura side shouldnt be ignored even if i personally believe that its like. 15% of them. the rest is kamadeva and mara. its still interesting to explore !!

but then weirdos like these exist and i suddenly log off <3 i could very well ignore these comics no problem, if they WERENT ALL AROUND THE INTERNET EVERYTIME I TYPE KAMA IN THE SEARCH BAR its tiring. 

though, mutuals coming forward and followers as well, coming to tell me that i made them like kama since my take on kama is so detached from sakura and the whole dark sakura theme and that they see kama in a new positive light thanks to me, gives me strength and makes me want to continue posting my headcanons. 

if u made it this far and still choose to support me, thank u so much !! i think that kamadeva is a genuinely interesting god and that fgo’s take on his revenge is very fun to explore and i wanna keep going in that direction and learn more about them !!

tho if ure a hardcore sakura-only fan and decide to unfollow me because of this rant, no problem. i never watched heavens feel, i dont want to watch it and im more of a rin fan to be quite honest !! my fate/stay night knowledge is enough for me to get by im jus here for fgo historical lore fellas !!! Peace !!

[purplesurveys]

1127

1. What is one thing you will never do again? Watch The Hours. Film itself is great, but is way too triggering.

2. Would you rather be twice as smart or twice as happy? I’d take happiness easily. It’s not bad for the most part to make mistakes and I’d rather be too clumsy than be altogether miserable.

3. What happened the last time you cried? It was the day of what would’ve been our anniversary and at that moment I was alone in my car at a parking lot (waiting for the office to open) on a gloomy day. I just had to cry and let my feelings out for like 5 minutes to accept everything but I was immediately fine afterwards, haha. Grief can be funny.

4. What happened the time in your life when you were the most nervous to do something? My first job interview. It was my first adult thing ever. They never got back to me - very professional of them - but I was still grateful for the experience nonetheless.

5. What would your parents be surprised to learn about you? That I was in a whole ass relationship for technically 6 1/2 years. They probably have an inkling by now, but only about me being in a relationship. I’m sure they would be very surprised if they ever found out how long it had actually gone for.

6. What’s your worst habit? I pick at my toenails when I’m nervous or stressed. I tend to do this when I’m doing a work task that I particularly dread, and sometimes I’ll end up being fixated on the habit for like 10 minutes straight and not get anything done.

7. What superpower would you have for one day? Time travel, just to take quick trips to multiple decades and see how life was like during those times.

8. What fictional character do you have the biggest crush on? Matty from 13 Going on 30 would be one of them. Albert Finney’s character in Two for the Road is also charming as fuck.

9. Where would you live if you could live anywhere in the world? If money wasn’t an issue, probably somewhere cozy in like Switzerland or Canada.

10. What is your most bizarre pet peeve? Not necessarily a pet peeve but I get extremely uncomfortable when someone hands me a gift then they insult the gift while in front of me, saying it’s not a great gift or that I probably don’t need it, etc. Filipinos also have this habit of saying something along the lines of, “You earn way more than me so you’d probably think this gift sucks” like how do you want me to react :(((((( I love receiving gifts and the idea of being thought about already means a lot to me, so it just makes me wince a little bit when I hear statements like the above.

11. Who knows you the best? Gabie, probably. I’ve changed a lot since then, though.

12. What after school activities did you do in high school? Clubs were mandatory extracurricular activities in my high school; in my time, I joined the table tennis and yearbook clubs.

13. What “most likely to” superlative would you be most honored to receive? Idk, we didn’t have those in school. I probably would have been honored to get a journalism-themed one though; something like Most Likely To Write for NYT or Most Likely to Win a Pulitzer or something like that. Obviously that’s changed now and I’ve long let go of journalism as a passion.

14. What’s the last book you really loved? I haven’t read in a long, long while.

15. What was the greatest television show of all time? I don’t watch a lot of TV so I’m not the most credible decision-making body for this lol, but out of all the shows I’ve watched the best one would easily be Breaking Bad.

16. What’s been your favorite age so far? 16. Life was insanely easygoing back then and everything fell into place for me at the time.

17. If you could go back in time, what is one piece of advice you would give your younger self? Know when it’s enough. Be kind to yourself.

18. What one thing would you be most disappointed if you never got to experience it? Have kids.

19. Apologize or ask permission? I don’t understand the relationship between the two.

20. Unlimited love or money? I would love to never have to worry about finances ever again.

21. If you knew you would die in one week, what would you do? Take a week-long leave for work, spend all my money, bond with my dogs, throw a party for my closest friends, and honestly, make my peace with her.

22. What’s your most listened to song? Spotify doesn’t show that feature, but I bet it’s from Paramore or Hayley anyway. It would be impossible to know my most-listened to song of all time, like if we took into account my Spotify, iTunes, etc.

23. Beach vacation or European vacation? I need a beach vacation badly, but a European vacation would be a new and different experience. I’d take the latter.

24. If you could have been a child prodigy what would you have wanted to be skilled at? Playing the piano.

25. What’s the first thing you would do if you won the lottery? Depends on how much I won lmao. I’d probably retire this early if the money was big enough since I’m pretty stingy anyway. But generally, I would like to pay off whatever bills my parents are currently paying for, get back the car that we had to sell because of the pandemic, and maybe go for a solo vacation or five heheh.

26. What celebrity would you trade lives with? Kylie Jenner, for a day. Just so I can briefly have a taste of how being that rich is like.

27. If you were a performing artist, what would you title your first album? Nope.

28. What story do your friends still give you crap about? Staying with Gab despite the red flags that glared for four whole years is one of them. Angela will also never let go of that one time I tried some kind of fruit juice in high school and I described it as ‘packs a punch.’ It’s understood as a super Westernized idiom where I live and literally no one uses it in a casual sentence, so it was a hit with her and now we use ‘packs a punch’ whenever we want to describe something awesome or surprising.

29. If earth could only have one condiment for the rest of time, what would you pick to keep around? Mayonnaise and I will die on this mayonnaise-coated hill.

30. What is the ideal number of people to have over on a Friday night? Ideally? At this point? Like 20. I would love for that to be the case on the first Friday we can consider the Philippines COVID-free.

31. What was the worst age you’ve been so far? Sorry for yet another incoming Paramore reference but they literally have a lyric that goes, “22 is like, the worst idea that I have ever had.” Before turning 22 I used to think it was a weird line, like how could 22 possibly be unenjoyable? Now I’m 22 in a pandemic going through a rough breakup and I can’t even see my friends nor work in my first workplace ever.

32. What is your weirdest dealbreaker? If they wanted only cats as pets. I can deal with a dog and a cat, I guess; but cats were never fond of me so I feel like I’d struggle with this situation lol.

33. What fictional character reminds you most of yourself? Mr. Peanutbutterrrrrrr. Has a lot of love to give, doesn’t always use it on the right people. Also lives on pleasing others.

34. Do you believe in karma? Just to a tiny extent, in how I would want people’s awful actions to come bite them in the ass one day. It’s not a philosophy that controls my life and the things I do whatsoever.

35. What was your favorite TV show as a kid? My absolute favorite was Hi-5, with the original cast. As I got older my interests shifted to Spongebob and The Fairly OddParents.

36. What is the weirdest thing you find attractive in a person? I don’t think it’s weird, but I don’t hear thighs too often when people list down their favorite physical traits. It’s certainly one of mine.

37. What Jeopardy! category would you clear, no problem? A Friends-themed one, obviously. This reminds me of the Jeopardy night I had with some friends a few nights ago! That was so much fun, and Andi makes really great and fun questions hahaha.

38. What is something you’re superstitious about? I don’t think I am about anything.

39. What is the scariest experience you have ever had? Maybe that night my grandpa went into a drunk rampage. I was 9, right in his line of sight, frozen and scared shitless, and I didn’t know who he was going to strike next.

40. Who is a non-politician you wish would run for office? I never really think about this. If someone’s a non-politician then there must be a reason they aren’t, lol.

41. What cheesey song do you have memorized? Little Things by One Direction is very cheesy and it’s one of my least favorite songs of theirs, but I still have it memorized out of habit.

42. What one dead person would you most like to have dinner with, if it were possible? My great-grandpa died all the way back in the 70s, even before some of my aunts and uncles could meet him. It would be cool to spend time with him.

43. Do you think it’s important to stay up to date with the news? Yeah, absolutely. I have the stomach for it lol, so I always monitor what’s happening locally and globally. Skipping the news from time to time is fine because I get how anxiety-inducing and depressing some events can be, but there’s a huge difference between ignoring the news for your mental health and being indifferent altogether. I’d immediately judge anyone who’s the latter, and would assume you are incredibly privileged.

44. What is the best present you could ever receive? My money refunded -____________- I had food delivered to my director, Bea’s house as a surprise earlier today, but apparently I ran into a scammer driver and the fucker drove away with the meal I had bought for Bea. I reported the driver and the situation, and thankfully the customer service rep of the food delivery app quickly responded and said they’d return the full amount I paid for; but I still haven’t received it.

45. Would you give up one of your fingers if it meant you’d have free wifi wherever you go, for the rest of your life? No. Mobile data exists for a reason.

46. What’s the first thing you’d do if you were the opposite sex for one day? Check out my voice.

47. If someone told you you could give one person a present and your budget was unlimited–what present would you get and for whom? I’d love to surprise Angela with an overseas trip that would last for like a month. Traveling is one thing we have yet to do as best friends.

48. What is the nicest thing someone could say about you? Nothing particular, but it makes me happy when people call me strong and when they validate the shit I’ve gone through over the years.

49. Giant house in a subdivision or tiny house somewhere with a view? I would take the giant house. When it comes to my own place, I would want to have a lot of space to roam around.

50. What is the weirdest quirk your family has? Nothing is coming to mind.

[duhragonball]

Frieza for the character ask, please. I want to know if there's something you like!

Give me a character and I will answer:

Why I like them: I tend to divide all of Dragon Ball canon into two sections: the part that’s about Dragon Balls, and the part that’s about Super Saiyans, with DBZ Episode 66 as the dividing line.   And Frieza’s original run as the main villain (Episodes 44-120) straddles that line.  

He’s basically a bridge between those two themes.    He starts off as a villain gathering the Dragon Balls to extend his rule, much like Emperor Pilaf or Commander Red, but he’s so insanely powerful that it almost doesn’t matter if he makes his wish or not.    The only thing that gives him pause is the possibility of a Saiyan uprising, except there’s only a handful of them left in the universe, which means the only way they could threaten him would be if one of them suddenly became the strongest Saiyan in a millennium.

My favorite aspect of Dragon Ball is that it keeps raising the stakes.   Vegeta was presented as the ultimate threat, and then it turned out that his boss is the strongest guy in the universe.   And he’s treated accordingly.    It takes forever to defeat him, mostly because it’s a lot safer to sneak around and avoid the guy, and when a final confrontation happens, no one has the necessary power to finish him off.  

Somewhat understandably, a lot of fans think of him as the Final Boss of the Dragon Ball mythos.  Goku becomes a legendary warrior to defeat the strongest guy in the universe.   How do you top that?    A lot of fans think that it was a mistake to try, and I’m pretty sure that’s where a lot of this “Toiryama wanted to quit after the Frieza Saga” mythology came from.  What they’re really saying is: “I think Toriyama should have quit after the Frieza Saga, and I assume he agrees with me, because I respect him so much, which must mean someone forced him to continue.”

But I think that’s bunk, because Toriyama’s best work was built on Frieza’s vaporized corpse.    How can you keep a martial arts epic going when the hero is stronger than the strongest person in the universe?   Toriyama took that as a challenge.    The androids could be stronger than Frieza because they hadn’t been built yet when Frieza was riding high.   Cell and Trunks could be stronger than Frieza because they’re from the future.  The Supreme Kai and Dabura were stronger than Frieza, but they don’t count because they’re from other realms beyond the “normal” universe.   Majin Buu could be stronger than Frieza because he’s from the distant past.   He’s been hidden away in storage for so long that no one remembers him.    Same deal with Beerus literally sleeping through all of Dragon Ball and DBZ.    And guys like Jiren and Hit are from whole separate universes.   All Toriyama had to do was avoid introducing some ultra-powerful character who had been active during Frieza’s lifetime.     The only one that springs to mind if Cooler, although he admits in Movie 5 that Frieza had an edge over him throughout their rivalry.   

So I like Frieza for being that big milestone character.   Guys like Cell and Majin Buu wouldn’t work as well without a Frieza to set them up as extraordinary challengers.  

Why I don’t: The problem with Frieza is that his importance to the franchise has led to him becoming overrated.  He’s got this 70-episode run as the main villain, but he spends most of it sitting in that goofy chair and literally refusing to do anything, even while his soldiers keep messing up.   When he finally does take matters into his own hands, he holds back, apparently because he wants to torture his opponents as much as possible before finishing them.  

People give Goku a lot of shit for showing mercy to his enemies, but no one ever seems to notice how Frieza could have wiped out Goku a hundred times over and just... didn’t.    At least when Goku does it, you can say it’s because he’s too nice, but what’s Frieza’s excuse?  There’s a lot of big long chunks of the Frieza Saga where literally nothing happens because the good guys are too weak and Frieza’s in no particular hurry to end it.  

By contrast, you have villains like Buu, who really don’t waste time like that.    He started killing people and while he wasn’t in any particular hurry, he didn’t drag it out either.   In less than 48 hours, he destroyed the whole planet.   That’s service.   

I cannot stress enough how Cell is the superior villain compared to Frieza.  The only lull in his run was when he declared a truce to allow his enemies to prepare for the Cell Games, and they were free to attack him during that time if they wanted.    And there was a point to that.   Cell had no particular agenda, so he decided to arrange a rematch with the Earth’s fighters.  

But when Frieza wastes time, it’s for plot reasons.   He’s just really lazy and unmotivated, or maybe he’s just incompetent.    But the wider fandom sees this jackass and goes “RARRR BEST VILLIN 5EVAR!”  Nah, he sucks. 

Favorite episode (scene if movie):   For my money, the coolest thing Frieza did was when he came back as a cyborg.    He kept trying to declare victory in his fight with Goku on Namek, even after cutting himself in half, and then Namek explodes on him and he still won’t let it go.   His dad finds him and after a long convalescence he decides to go to Earth and fight Goku all over again.   

What makes it so awesome is that the cyborg parts are a silent testament to how monumentally stupid that idea is.   All this guy had going for him was his top spot on all the power level charts, and now he’s lost that and he has no idea how to get along without it.  

And this is why I hate the idea of bringing him back from the dead, because there’s nowhere left to take this character.    He lost on Namek, and Episode 119-120 was just his last-ditch effort to defy reality.    He doesn’t know how to survive in a world where he’s not the top dog, and he doesn’t survive, that’s the end of that story.    Bringing him back just repeats the lesson, only without the cool cyborg parts to remind us that this never works.

Favorite season/movie: I guess Frieza Saga by default.  It’s got some great moments in it, but it gets really thin in places. 

Favorite line: “Peace?  I... will... never... know peaaaace!”  Or words to that effect.   Whatever bluster he shouted at Goku when he tried to take that last shot at him before Namek exploded.

Favorite outfit: The cyborg look.

OTP: I guess he has the hots for Yamcha, so let’s go with that.

Brotp: Yeah, right.

Head Canon: Between the lore in the Bardock TV special and “Dragon Ball Minus”, I get the impression that Frieza is concerned with legends in general, not just the one about the Super Saiyan.    I say this because in “Father of Goku”, he sent Bardock’s crew to conquer Kanassa, and the only apparent reason for this was because of the rumors of their psychic abilities.   Frieza was likewise intrigued by the Namekian regeneration ability.    I think in at least one translation he expresses some envy of Nail’s power, implying that he would want to find some way to acquire it for himself. 

What I’m getting at is that Frieza’s so powerful that the only things he has to worry about are things that may not even exist.    The Kanassans were probably no threat to him, but he may have considered that they could be, so he wiped them out before it could come to that.   Or maybe his staff discovered a tale of the Kanassan planet being the source of their powers, so he decided he needed to control that planet before his enemies could use it against him.   

Same deal with the Saiyans.   in DB Minus, I got the impression that he’s got a whole team of researchers who check up on local folklore.   Maybe they do this everywhere he goes, and he uses this intel to decide which planets live or die.  

Unpopular opinion: Frieza’s main contribution to the Dragon Ball franchise was to provide useful genetic material for the creation of Cell, the true best villain.  

A wish:  Hit and Majin Buu kill his ass and Grand Zeno, Great Priest, and Shaggy Blanco all hold a press conference announcing that he’s dead forever and can never come back, no matter what.    He gets sent to the same turbo super hell they have in Supernatural.   

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen:  Please don’t do any team ups with old villains and have Cell take orders from Frieza.   That sucks and it shouldn’t happen.  

5 words to best describe them: Final form is a corpse.

My nickname for them: LOWARD FUREEZA.