#im connecting the dots guys..

[tunapesto]

I can only hope you'll hate me forever

I'll remain in your thoughts that way

[katabay]

this tweet & this scene from the mystery of the abyss movie

[lippmannssplatteredblood]

Was it ever confirmed Lippmann was based on Walter Lippmann?

No.

But wait, there's enough evidence! (Ty anon im using this ask as an excuse to ramble and getting these off my chest)

As we all already know, most of the characters in BSD, especially ability users, are based on real life authors. Stormbringer explicitly stated that bsd!Lippmann was "an extremely powerful skill user" so he must be based on someone. And guess what? There happens to be a writer with the exact name as his.

Walter Lippmann was an American journalist, politician, and writer. He was deemed as "the most gifted and influential American political journalist of the twentieth century". His works mostly took the theme of public relations and stuff. Sounds familiar?

I'd like to add this part from the etymology section of his(bsd) wiki btw, just in case you didn't know.

Does it end there? No, not quite.

Let's take a look at his most popular work; Public Opinion.

"...The pictures inside the heads of these human beings, the pictures of themselves, of others, of their needs, purposes, and relationship, are their public opinions. Those pictures which are acted upon by groups of people, or by individuals acting in the name of groups, are Public Opinion with capital letters."

"The pictures in our heads", page 29

People, generally, have some sort of "persona" of themselves that they would try to plant on other people's minds. Kinda like the Japanese "three faces" proverb, you may say. And how do they achieve it? By only presenting that persona; by masking; by acting.

"Royal personages are, of course, constructed personalities. Whether they themselves believe in their public character, or whether they merely permit the chamberlain to stage-manage it, there are at least two distinct selves, the public and regal self, the private and human."

"The pictures in our heads", page 7

Simply said, him being an actor might be a reference to (or a representation of) that human nature which P.O. talks of. An actor acts—they dive into the role of another character that's not them. (Which, when you think about it, is just what us humans do on a daily basis, except they do it professionally and for a living, which when you think about it again—)

Mr. Lippmann also published books titled "A Preface to Politics" and "A Preface to Morals" which is....interesting.

Okay, "preface" and "face" technically are different. Though they still share somewhat a similar meaning.

But hear me out. Let's go back to the persona thing. Generally, what people would want to be perceived as is as the perfect, ideal versions of themselves. To make that happen, they would have to put on a good first impression. And what's usually the first thing that people notice about a person? Correct—their appearance; their face.

Lippmann(bsd) was multiple times described as "perfect" (like okay asagiri, he's pretty, we get it), especially regarding his looks (and capabilities). See what I'm saying?

Lippmann was the stage face, the public image of the Port Mafia. He was the preface to the Port Mafia. He created the pictures in people's head of the Port Mafia.

As a verb, however, "face" has another meaning:

He negotiated with front companies, met and talked with political figures, and even dealt with the press if push came to shove.

I feel like this might be merely a coincidence or a pun, though. But the fact that his field of work in the Port Mafia was specifically negotiating with the "real world" is definitely not something Asagiri just pulled out of thin air—or so I believe to be the case, at least, having read this paragraph.

"This is the underlying reason for the existence of the press agent. The enormous discretion as to what facts and what impressions shall be reported is steadily convincing every organized group of people that whether it wishes to secure publicity or to avoid it, the exercise of discretion cannot be left to the reporter. It is safe to hire a press agent who stands between the group and the newspapers. Having hired him, the temptation to exploit his strategic position is very great."

"The nature of news", page 344

Oh, by the way, remember this scene?

It's just a silly, filler interaction that seemed not to reference anything, but just you wait.

"Men cannot long act in a way that they know is a contradiction of the environment as they conceive it. If they are bent on acting in a certain way they have to reconceive the environment, they have to censor out, to rationalize. But if in their presence, there is an insistent fact which is so obstrusive that they cannot explain it away, one of three courses is open. They can perversely ignore it, though they would cripple themselves in the process, will overact their part and come to grief. They can take it into account but refuse to act. They pay in internal discomfort and frustration. Or, and I believe this is to be the most frequent case, they adjust their whole behavior to the large environment."

"Intelligence work", page 383

Then again, these are but my interpretations and/or speculations which I'd like you to take with a grain of salt, as I could very well still be wrong (because Asagiri loves to trick us, apparently).

I could go on and on and on and on and on but I'm afraid I'd just be blabbering nonsense at some point. Thank you for reading my (hopefully coherent) ramblings.

[okawarihappylife]

i am once again thinking abt the lost potential that is hypmic.

[scarysanctuary]

The fact Greg refers to his date as another notch, like, he doesn't care for these women, or even really seem attracted to them, he just loves rushing over to Tom to brag about his conquests, which is interesting because Tom's not even a player himself, so why does Greg always brag to him about his dating life? To prove that he's desirable? That he's sexually active? That he's cool? As far as we know he only ever shows off to Tom about this stuff, even though it seems like Tom's not really interested in hearing about it, he still does it, so, why? He definitely wants Tom's admiration and approval, but it seems like Greg may not even be -ahem- rummaging to completion, at least he never confirmed that he did, so he's really only having sexual experiences... for Tom? And meanwhile Tom seems to be jealous every single time Greg even talks to another woman for 1 second, he's torturing the poor old man, and maybe Greg knows this deep down, and that's how he gets his delayed sexual gratification. Oh this is so gay.

[deuces-stone-cold-style]

I just think we wouldn't have the werewolf=black people debate if Mattel made black characters that weren't werewolves... ya know. Or werewolves that were unambiguously NOT black instead of fucken Grey like Romulus, actually that goes for the non-werewolf characters too like why is Honey Swamp TEAL

[todd-queen]

this is where I'm at lately

here's all the posts that are making me feel this insane

above and below/the tower tarot/tower of babel/tower princes

the tower has reactivated/the tower wants john gaius

they are coming out of their tower/10 billion souls and john gaius

[sickfreaksirkay]

perceval -> perce val -> pierce the veil. vic fuentes is perceval? much to consider

[threepoint14art]

Almost the whole thing

But not quite

[henclair]

pushing my fall out boy kylux agenda publicly!!!

[karamazovanon]

Hannibal 1x10 Buffet Froid, Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (tr. McDuff)

[clockworkcheetah]

we dont talk about dirk clearly being very into the idea of todd being an action hero wielding a crossbow

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

wait wait wait wait. Thomas Calvert. no fucking way. isn't that the guy from piggots interlude. the other survivor from nilbog.

[limonjarritos]

Do you guys know how insane it is that Rody is biphobic and bi just casually in this story. Like imagine if there was less cannibalism (boo) and the whole game was just Rody fighting his bisexual demons.

(actually he probably kinda lowkey was with how much his mind strays back to Manon when speaking to Vincent, though he's also perhaps that down bad. But still, you know how people will subconsciously play up their opposite gender attraction when trying to fight the same sex attraction thoughts)

[wormonastringtime]

lupin and fujiko are simply on a different wavelength that other people dont understand

[cashmere-caveman]

Hanif Abdurraqib, it’s not like nikola tesla knew all of those people were going to die | Anne Carson, H of H Playbook | Richard Siken, Snow and Dirty Rain | Franz Wright, Heaven | Toby Whithouse, shooting script for Being Human S1E1 | Franz Wright, Heaven | Erin Slaughter, I Hope My Salt Lamp is a Weeping Deity | Richard Siken, Straw House, Straw Dog & My Country: The New Age, Episode 16

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