#interactive analysis

[nabexis]

So like. Did anyone else notice that Jayce doesn't immediately shoot Viktor? He only powers his hammer on AFTER Viktor has opened his eyes. Below is Jayce's reaction to seeing Viktor (his Viktor, from his universe, not the future version of him) for the first time after walking into the dome. For the first time in months. That's like. A look of wonder. Almost reverence.

Assuming the Jinx/Rictus/Vander fight is cut to real-time after Jayce has gone into the dome, he's staring at Viktor for like. 5 minutes.

My interpretation here, of Jayce's expression just before Viktor finally opens his eyes to see Jayce in the room with him, he's committing Viktor to memory, before he has to kill him.

Edit: I almost missed it but like. HE IS SMILING For like 2 frames it's an outright smile. He leans in towards him, too. I cannot handle this.

[prokopetz]

The history of ergodic literature is kind of a trip because half the time you end up looking at something you didn't know you could do with the written word, and the other half of the time it's just a guy who clearly wants to be writing hypertext fiction but has the misfortune of being born in 1899.

[owltattoo]

So I was listening to Mastermind for the 3864579th time and I've seen a lot of posts talk about everyone that's horrified at Blitz's execution. But we can also see those horrified when it seemed that Stolas might be executed:

also Oz and Bee only look sad (though they probably know he won't be punished too harshly):

and lastly Via of course:

It breaks my heart how much smaller Stolas's support is, it's basically just Blitz, Vassago and Octavia. Now Via is getting brainwashed against him and we don't even know who Vassago is...

I can't wait for the IMP team to also become part of Stolas's found family because this birb has needed friends his whole life and now more than ever :(

[ocaledonia]

lately i've been doing a lot of thinking about why women are the main supporters of transgenderism, and i think i've boiled it down to three main elements

1. women are socialised to be more accommodating and accepting of uncomfortable situations than men are. this has been discussed at length in the radical feminist tradition and the gender critical movement, but it bears reiterating. women are taught from early childhood to disbelieve their feelings of fear, anger and humiliation for the benefit of men.

2. i'd argue that the description of physical dysphoria is one that almost all women empathise with, because of how alienated women are from their bodies by society, in a way most men are not. even women who would say they are comfortable with their bodies have complicated feelings about having a female body in our society, even if they don't have the framework to express it. therefore, when women are confronted with men who make claims about sex dysphoria, they relate and empathise and some can draw conclusions that this distress aligns them with femaleness (i would argue that all women experience sex dysphoria in a misogynist society like ours but i digress). i think there many women also find solace in the idea that someone else could possibly have their physical distress alleviated and want to believe it is possible to find a solution to it.

In other words, “The body has been made so problematic for women that it has often seemed easier to shrug it off and travel as a disembodied spirit.” - Adrienne Rich

3. women want to believe that male oppression and men aren't really that bad. to comprehend the scale of women's oppression, and to fully understand that the men you know and love are as complicit in it as any other, feels like balancing on the brink of madness. women are desperate for evidence that things aren't as bad as they suspect.

Andrea Dworkin says it best: “Many women, I think, resist feminism because it is an agony to be fully conscious of the brutal misogyny which permeates culture, society, and all personal relationships.”

that is part of the allure of the trans movement for these women in denial. breaking down the categories of male and female, and denying the social dynamics therein, means they don't have to grapple with the ugliness of misogyny.

anyone else have thoughts on this? i'd be keen to hear if others on radblr think

[purpleshimmer]

Arcane - S1 E7 - "The Boy Savior" + S2 - Bones UK - "Dirty Little Animals" + E1 - "Heavy is the Crown"

[haematoclan]

i know people often see raph as the most parentified sibling, but- man, Donnie's been responsible for providing for the whole family with his technology (and probably making money) since he was a little kid and he hasn't even gotten any/much positive feedback from his dad for doing that (like no wonder he ties his self worth to his inventions to such extreme, that's been his primary function in his family and everyone takes it for granted)

not to mention, in the scene after Splinter got caught stealing Donnie's car, Donnie straight up yells at Splinter, he reprimands him and even grounds him... and the way this scene is worded it seems like a recurring thing, with Donnie punishing splinter with educational programs and whatnot (and i know its mainly for comedic effect but like- there's a clear angst potential here, he literally acts like a parent to his own dad!) and Donnie's parenting is directly compared to Splinter's later in the show.

though tbh i think all of turtle brothers were parentified to some extend one way or another (yes even leo and mikey), but also- *looks at donnie* yeeeeeah this one had it rough.

[seaglassdinosaur]

It’s not just ‘the colonized becomes the colonizer’

It’s the historical context of Black-Irish conflicts, rooted in the anti-Blackness of the United States and the rampant anti-Irish discrimination that placed Irish people below White folks, but above Black people.

It’s that the Irish weren’t ‘really’ white at the time because Whiteness is a social construct not based in phenotypic presentation, but culture, behavior, and power.

That the Irish however were able to ‘become’ white as the rules of whiteness changed, a dichotomy so strongly personified by Remmick.

It’s that the Irish were also hated by the KKK, same as Black folks, but in a depiction of ‘becoming’ White, Remmick is able to change enough of himself to gain the trust of the Klan and become the head of their power structure.

[vivelegalite]

dear dead boy detective (especially paynland) enjoyers: have you yet heard of the biggest gift bestowed upon the fandom so far, aka jayden's charles playlist? the one he mentioned in interviews? well, he dropped it on twitter at 19th of may. and man, do i have stuff to say about it.

there's a lot of 80's bangers, for sure, great to get into the mood and character, but some of the choices...

i'm gonna focus on a few of my favourites, songs that made me go insane when i saw them. honorable mentions: - category 1 (so devoted the lines blur): ain't no mountain high enough by marvin gaye and tammi terrell, there is a light that never goes out by the smiths, inkpot gods by the amazing devil - category 2 (family life): family line and summer child by conan gray, seventeen going under by sam fender, matilda by harry styles, father by the front bottoms - category 3 (being queer in the 80s): smalltown boy by bronski beat, boys don't cry by the cure - category 4 (there's no heterosexual explanation for this one): good luck, babe! by chappel roan, yellow by coldplay, fight or flight by conan gray (is this about monty? the cat king? i need answers!), the prophecy by taylor swift, arms tonite by mother mother, sweet by cigarettes after sex, head over heels by tears for fears

this list is by no means complete or comprehensive!

and now, the songs that made me go the craziest: (they're predominantly in charles' pov as it's his playlist)

found heaven by conan gray

the only reason this song made it into the list and not the honorable mentions instead of smalltown boy is that it makes almost the same point, just so much more explicitly. i don't think i have to say much about it, it's a story of a young person griping with their queerness, being forced to leave home, a common theme of the playlist. "you're in love, you found heaven" when he chose edwin over his own afterlife, heavily implied to be heaven, and built his heaven with him on the mortal plane? ouch! (and we see this same notion repeated in another bop from the playlist, heaven is a place on earth by belinda carlisle).

2. like real people do by hozier

"i miss kissing" charles rowland, 202X romantic meaning aside, the verses show a sort of a common understanding the boys have around the manner of their deaths and their lives before it. we already know from the show they don't really talk about it, with edwin not knowing about the severity of the abuse charles suffered. it feels like one of them saying "let the past be past, we're together now, yeah?". but also, jayden: can there ever be a platonic explanation for this? ghosts can't touch, can't feel, so they wish they could just kiss like "real" (alive?) people do?

3. flaws by bastille

not the most romantic song, but i absolutely love how well it fits their dynamic. despite his edwardian brand of repression, edwin truly is the one that's more open about his feelings (recognising of course that in this case, the bar is so low it's in hell. haha, get it). edwin has worn his flaws upon his sleeve, and charles has held them buried - eg. bottling up all of his anger and resentment towards his family and his own death. the song presents a very sweet outlook, in which their flaws are brought up to the surface (for example, charles' outburst against the night nurse in episode 4), but they learn to accept them as they are, an extension of themselves.

4. a pearl by mitski

you know it's gonna get intense if there's a mitski song in the mix.

the song is about a person who finds love in their partner, someone who treats them way better than they've ever been treated - and yet they cannot bring themselves to reciprocate the affection ("it's not that i don't want you, sorry i can't take your touch") despite reciprocating the feelings themselves because of the trauma. charles is known to bottle things up ("you're growing tired of me and all the things i don't talk about"). the person in the song recognises the love the other person holds for them ("you love me so hard and i still can't sleep"), which reminds me of charles' response to edwin's confession. not a "no", but a "maybe, as time passes".

5. fair by the amazing devil

this one made me genuinely gasp when i first delved into the lyrics. it's simply so sweet, such a genuine and domestic portrayal of love. at first i thought it was way too open about being a love song (normal text instead of the subtext i'd be used to) for jayden to choose it with edwin in mind, but... there's no one else it can really be about. it's far too domestic, too "established" to refer to crystal. refers to a relationship that's laster for a longer while.

the narrator in the first verse is a person deeply in love with the other person, someone who loves to make his lover laugh and simply drinks in their presence. the "he" in the song i believe is charles, while the "she" refers to edwin. edwin promises to fight off anyone - or any feelings pulling charles down (we can see this in the first episode: "you ever think... what if death did catch us? she'd force us to go to the afterlife and split up" "i will make sure this never happens."). charles feels left behind by the world (seeing as he clings to crystal at first, refering to her as "someone their age who's still alive") and believes edwin to be so much stronger than he's ever been. i'm not going to break down the song verse by verse, but if you read it yourself while subbing out "he" for charles and "she" for edwin you'll see just how sweet (and... strangely very in character?) the song is.

6. work song by hozier

if the previous song made me gasp when i saw the lyrics, this one made me go "NO WAY" out loud when i saw the title. the first one verse is just pure toothrotting sweetness, but the chorus is what i want to draw attention to:

when my time comes around lay me gently in the cold, dark earth no grave can hold my body down i'll crawl home to her

HELLO? charles, who keeps escaping death and afterlife to be able to stay with edwin? charles, as he literally takes his last breath with edwin right there, choosing to be by his side rather than move on? charles, who keeps choosing him despite night nurse's promises and threats? charles, who literally crawled through hell for him?

verse 2, to me, can be interpreted as referring to when charles died. edwin found him at his worst, and he "woke" up with his presence comforting him. he was shivering due to hypothermia and his injuries. edwin didn't ask him about what happened or pushed him, he simply listened. the lines "i didn't care much how long i lived, but I swear, i thought i dreamed her" are pretty self explanatory.

in verse 3 we still see the same attitude of "damn the afterlife, at least we have each other" as charles portrays througout the series. they're free, and heaven and hell are simply words to him.

7. orpheus by vincent lima

i literally have no words for this one. it fits too well. if you want commentary for this one, just... i don't know, rewatch the staircase scene.

8. francesca by hozier

(cracks knuckles) this is the big one. the album francesca is from, unreal unearth, is based on dante alighieri's divine comedy, a fourteenth century poem about a man venturing into hell, purgatory and eventually heaven. the eponymous francesca is one francesca di rimini, a woman who was politically married off to a man older than her, called giovanni malatesta. francesca didn't love him, and eventually fell deep in love with giovanni's younger brother, paolo. the two carried on with the affair for years, before being murdered by giovanni upon his finding out. francesca and paolo are mentioned in canto v of the first book, inferno, as two souls damned in the second circle of hell, lust. their punishment is to be permanently locked in a hurricane, swept away by the winds the moment they manage to get close enough to touch one another.

as opposed to their portrayal in the poem, the song is from the perspective of paolo, explaining that no matter the punishment, he wouldn't change anything about his life because he got to know, and love, francesca.

the first verse brings to mind the scenes in hell, especially on the staircase ("do you think I'd give up? that this might've shook the love from me? or that I was on the brink? how could you think, darlin', i'd scare so easily?" as an echo of charles' "sorry. no version of this where i didn't come get you"). "my life was a storm since i was born, how could i fear any hurricane?" could relate to charles' tumultuous family life, an assurance that nothing he has to deal with while by edwin's side will faze him given the things he's lived through. no, despite everything he's suffered through, charles wouldn't do anything differently - because his (admittedly shitty) life led him to edwin ("i'd tell them, put me back in"). we already know charles would choose him over heaven, willingly sacrificing his own afterlife to stay with a boy he's known for hours, someone kind enough to keep him company as he drew his final breath. all of it - his father's abuse, his schoolmates' bigotry, the pain of his own death, as well as everything he's gone through since - he'd do it all again, for edwin.

"for all that was said of where we'd end up at the end of it" could be taken as an allusion to the fate the boys would meet at "at the end of it", when they're finally caught by death and separated, or as more of a general "if you sin, you will go to hell when you die" (up to you to decide what the sin itself would be - an interpretation that would work with other songs on the playlist is that one such sin would be same sex attraction). then their hearts ceased, they never knew "peace", nor did they want to find it in death. their deaths were too soon, them being ripped away from life, but even though it would break his heart: charles would ask to do it all again.

the outro, i think, beautifully pulls it all together: heaven is not fit to house a love like theirs.

to wrap it all up:

jayden, what were you cooking in there? what do you know??

[bibuckaroo]

i saw someone talking about how jayce was literally obsessed with magic his entire life and then it turned out that his girlfriend was a mage all along and arcane just… didn’t do anything with that.

but like (this is not me throwing any type of shade, i love mel with my whole heart, i’m just talking about the storylines) if you’re saying this, you completely missed the point of both jayce’s and mel’s story? even if they were together briefly and in love with each other, their stories were not intrinsically connected.

mel’s story was indeed about learning that she had powers and what that meant about her identity, her family and her future moving forward, her story is defined by her own sense of self.

jayce’s story is defined by… viktor (i know, shocking, as if the show hadn’t been clear enough). their story was indeed intrinsically connected, the only reason jayce became obsessed with magic was because of future!viktor in the first place, but his obsession with magic had nothing on his obsession with viktor, because ultimately he decided that viktor was more important to him than anything else.

the point is, of course the show wouldn’t do anything about mel being a mage having to do with jayce, because her story is independent from him and the only reason jayce was obsessed with magic was to lead him to viktor. in this essay, i will…

[anomalys-bane]

ways to show the male gaze in cinema without constantly showing ass on screen 'satirically'

-> Performing Scene: the entire scene focuses on a male audience. the camera is pointed at the men and we can only see over the shoulder of the performing woman. show them being as gross as possible while watching. no 'unseen watchers' no masks no hiding faces. show how pathetically absorbed these men are. also show how ordinary they are. there is nothing special about male attention. add a creepy horror movie type constant background humming, punctuated with the sounds of men shifting or grunting grossly. no music. the scene goes on for an uncomfortably long time, just panning over the male audience.

-> Stalking Scene: when depicting a stalker, once again the focus should be on the creepy man, but not from his pov. use wide shots that encompass the entire room, showing the stalked woman going about her business, doing human, relatable things. the woman should not be in the center of the frame. then use shots from her pov, slowly panning over the room while she goes about her business for a while, then suddenly freezing when she notices the man watching. use chill, upbeat music that stops at once upon her noticing, revealing those unsettling horror movie sounds that have been humming in the background.

-> Woman (human) Centered: the entire scene is set on the performing/watched woman's face, and only her face, from any angle, front, side, top, bottom, etc. it all works. show every micro-expression, even as she moves here and there. show her discomfort, her unease, her frustration, her sweat, tears, her fixed smile faltering, darting eyes, features twitching from stress, stuff like that. the camera moves with her face, adding a dizzying effect if she is moving around a lot, disconcerting the viewer. we focus on her and only her, but on the most human part of her, her face. little to no music, most sounds are made by her, her breathing, her heartbeat, gasps, grunts etc etc. show flashes of whoever is watching her, but only unsettling flashes.

-> Wide Angle Performance: the entire scene is filmed from a fixed, unmoving point set far away, so we cannot see much. the scene goes on for an uncomfortably long time. in this one the woman can be shown doing male gazey things but the unmoving, far set angle makes things look silly and uncomfortable. no music, just awkward audience sounds and the sounds of the woman moving. the scene can be punctuated with awkward, uncomfortable close up shots of the male audience.

Pls add more !

[four-unwell-lesbians]

Thinking about the way dungeon meshi does queer horror. Using horror to tell queer stories is already subversive, but dungeon meshi subverts it even more

Normal queer horror is like. A monsterous desire and immortal love of something isolated/hated and the uncontrollable but suppressed need to consume someone to live and they only die if you break/pierce their heart. its great.

In dungeon meshi, the group is STARVING. they do things the way they're expected to and they're so deprived that eventually, one of them is consumed by that monsterous desire.

Then when Falin becomes a monster, she doesn't eat Marcille because she doesn't NEED to, Marcille already offered herself up as part of Falin by mixing her own blood with the dragon's for the resurrection.

Also Marcille is a monster too!! She doesn't need to be turned by Falin. She's a 'witch' doing black magic for one but she's also very vampiric

Her name is super vampirey especially given one of the translation spellings was Marcilla, an annogram of Carmilla*. And Marcille is very similar to Marceline from Adventure Time so it's a name with heavy connotations to me. Also her staff is Ambrosia which means immortal.

*ps Carmilla is the original modern vampire that inspired Dracula and also a lesbian. she used annagrams of her name (Marcilla, Mircalla, Millarca) to disguise herself across hundreds of years.

Marcille is like. a vampire in that death is a big part of her theme. She can breathe that immortality into someone else using her resurrection black magic and death is a huge part of her character. She wants them to live as long as she does. To make them immortal. Like. Like a vampire. Vampires which are unholy when her love interest is a cleric.

But once again this is subverted!! she doesn't 'turn' Falin, she makes her undead by giving her own blood instead of taking Falin's. Falin becomes a monster not because she's attacked or turned, but because her DNA, something INHERENT about her is now intertwined with the monster. so a god-like figure merges them. Then the only way to free her from that frenzy and grant her autonomy again is to finally consume her. something inherently lesbian about all that i think idk about you

[smellypire]

the reason why i want kenji and chuuya to interact so bad is that they are both so selfless that it hurts them, they both try to understand other people, help them, and think so much about other people in their life rather than themselves.

the way that that chuuya embraces anger as a defense mechanism and how kenji uses optimistic behavior as a defense mechanism so it can it can bottle up his anger is so interesting to me. then they're both so strong at a young age and had to persevere through so much like ugh.. the way that chuuya forgave verlaine after what he did to him and the way kenji chose to help tecchou after what he did to him..

and it's like you see them interact in wan and anthlogy. they get along so well there and i feel like they would in main manga too. they're both so understanding and like the parralels between corruption & kenji's unhinged side of his ability like.

they would be such a power duo.

[bixels]

The more I think about it, the more I question Arcane S2's politics and themes, which were so foundational to S1. Like, a tiny example [SPOILERS AHEAD]:

Singed wins. He gets exactly what he wants in the end. All his "efforts" are rewarded. What does that say about people who share his ideology of eugenics? He is the source of nearly every horrible thing and conflict that happened (Shimmer, the factory deaths, Jinx, Vander as Warwick, the corruption of Viktor), and he gets a happier ending than any other character. Not even a 'he got what he wanted but he has become completely unrecognizable/monstrous to his daughter' tag at the end. You can say they're setting him up and need to open his daughter to future shows, but the way you end a character's story says something about what you think about that character. What does it say when the eugenicist war criminal gets the happy ending he doesn't deserve?

[shyjusticewarrior]

Barbara: You can be hard to talk to, you know that?

Jason: Am I? Or do you just hate what seeing me reminds you of?

Barbara: Do I look like Bruce to you? This is literally what I'm talking about.

[brownwomanisland]

Just saw this comment online:

"Before we all get angry let's remember it's fine to be critical of the patriarchy whilst also consenting in a kink which, in my opinion, makes the patriarchy entirely consent-based and reduces it to a role-play game and that's actually fine"

And it's in response to this:

Words mean nothing rip.

Prepare yourselves sisters, it's "obviously satirical", "subversive commentary", "god forbid a woman sexualises herself", "it's for her not the male gaze" commentary for the rest of the year.

[lylacynth13]

niigo Miku and Luka being suspiciously absent card wise while their counterparts (Mafuyu and Kanade) are going through it is interesting and potentially symbolic and might have some hidden meaning and who am I kidding the writers probably forgot about them