#like what if they are suffering in the same way as sergey

[quinn-fucks-shit-up]

I can't be the only one concerned about the computer gays in the context of the One Other Guy we know who was trapped in a computer who didn't have a very nice time of it

[symphonybracket]

YouTube links: Tchaikovsky 6, Rachmaninoff 2

Comments:

Rachmaninoff 2

Makes me feel like I'm in the movie Nemo (<- very good thing)

[Image via @iidsch]

Tchaikovsky 6

Everyone bangs on about the 4th movement but it's the 3rd movement that really hits

tchaik 6 is what i would listen to if i had an hour to live

the 5/4 movement of the tchaik lives rent free in my mind and i think about it every day

It’s beyond gorgeous. The melodies soar, the orchestra swells, and you just need to lie down for a while after listening to it. It’s Romanticism at its zenith. You want to weep and sigh, and it’s impossible to listen to it without literally feeling something.

Symphony No. 6, titled “Pathétique”, was Tchaikovsky’s final symphony. It is an intensely emotional piece, and to many scholars demonstrates the emotional turmoil that characterized much of Tchaikovsky’s life. He died about a week after its premiere, a fact which leads many scholars to debate about whether the content of the piece itself reflects the possibility that he may have committed suicide. The title itself is often translated to mean “impassioned suffering”, although this was most likely a later addition by Modest and not actually part of Tchaikovsky’s vision. Given these facts, many scholars interpret this piece to be about death and suffering. However, this piece can also be seen to represent life and all its contrasting moments. This interpretation is more holistic and inclusive of all of the moments captured in this piece, and also serves to break down the common narrative of Tchaikovsky as a tragic figure.

More comments about Tchaikovsky 6 below the cut (length warning):

Scholarship surrounding Tchaikovsky’s music tends to focus heavily on the ways his confliction over his homoerotic desires appears in his writing. However, his personal letters reveal a much more balanced understanding of himself that goes beyond the common narrative. In one letter written to Modest describing a new relationship with another man, he writes: “I awoke today with a feeling of unknown happiness and with a complete absence of that emotional sobriety that used to make me repent in the morning for having gone too far the day before.” Many of the letters he wrote regarding his relationships demonstrate no shame and no anguish beyond what can be expected of a man living in a homophobic society. It is important to take this information into account when listening to a piece such as this one that has been discussed so frequently, and to understand it beyond the turmoil and strife that it is seen to represent. Like many of Tchaikovsky’s works, this symphony displays a range of human emotions. It is not only representative of tragedy and “impassioned suffering”; it is a depiction of what it is like to live. It is also interesting to note that this piece is used as a signifier of queer desire in the novel "Maurice" by E.M. Forster, a novel also notable for its radical portrayal of a queer man who gets a happy ending. Much to think about there.

The first movement begins with a lone bassoon soloist playing a plaintive minor melody, which later comes back in the strings. As the movement progresses, it grows in intensity and texture. More instruments are added, and the music becomes more frantic, building and building towards the dramatic trumpet fanfare. Throughout this piece, Tchaikovsky continues to make significant use of contrasting dynamics and melodies, reflecting the emotions he hopes to convey through the music. Dramatic, tumultuous sections are interspersed with pastoral woodwind melodies, and the angry brass fanfares give way to a quiet ending.

The second movement is reminiscent of a waltz, and uses the strings and woodwinds more than the brass to achieve its floating melodies. The dynamics ebb and flow to build tension, but this movement never reaches the same levels of anguish that the previous movement does. Tchaikovsky makes use of pizzicato in the strings to convey a lighter, more cheerful mood, and features the upper woodwinds prominently. He also repeats themes frequently, giving the audience something familiar to listen out for as the movement progresses.

The third movement begins with frantic energy in the strings and woodwinds. As more instruments join the rush of music, the underlying eight note accompaniment does not let up, continuing the vivacious beginning through the whole movement. Instruments pass the melodies between each other and engage in conversations across the orchestra. Like the first movement, the brass play a prominent role in creating dramatic climaxes in the music, as well as supporting the march-like conclusion. Conductor Myung-Whun Chung describes the deceptively dramatic ending as, “one of the greatest, most thrilling, but most empty of victories in musical history,” observing that this movement has the energetic finality of a final movement. The reversal of having the true finale be a slower movement represents a shift away from the “Beethovian model of light over darkness” common in most other symphonies of this time period.

As mentioned before, ending on a movement with a slow tempo was a significant shift away from the standard of the time. This innovation inspired many other future composers to use the same technique, most notably Mahler in his Ninth Symphony. The quiet beginning builds up towards a chaotic rush of fast runs throughout the orchestra, only to stop abruptly and continue in halting, cautious bursts of melody. The movement continues with this cycle of rushing up to a climax and backing away as the movement progresses. Tchaikovsky highlights the horns in this movement, giving them both angry, blaring notes which cut through the string melodies and the flowing, lyrical lines that are passed throughout the orchestra. As the piece ends, the instruments fall away until all that is left are steady repeated notes in the basses, bringing this lament of a movement to an understated close.

[syrips]

What are your fave canon-divergent Strahd headcanons? And/or what lore changes has a DM made in your CoS campaign that you really liked?

ooh ty for the ask! 🧡🧡

im not sure if my stuff is canon-divergent or compliant because its a mix of potential-canon or random things that could be explained with lore but either way!!-

obviously potential spoilers and l o n g !

thank you for the ask, i kinda rambled but i enjoyed writing it all hehee; i swear these are my favs, didnt realize i have so many

headcanonish list and cos dm list below:

Headcanon-ish(?) list in no specific order:

strahd can invent, alternate, or customize spells

strahd passively charms people (requiring a DC save) without realizing it

strahd 4th wall breaks constantly; anything the DM knows, strahd knows

alek gwilym was the first sacrifice in strahd's ritual, not tatyana or sergei

during the ritual, alek, sergei, and tatyana's physical bodies were all taken by the mists; they can/have reincarnated many times, similar to tatyana, but are usually lost/unaware because strahd only focuses on tatyana

strahd genuinely wants a family, but attempts in desperately unhinged ways (necromancy/kidnapping/adopting)

good-aligned strahd exists, because evil-aligned tatyanas also exist

strahd's tome/i, strahd books have an unintentional charm on the reader (in an in-game sense)

all visual depictions/art/portrayals of strahd are legitimate (in an in-game sense), we just view strahd differently, and draw/see him in our perspective

all versions/campaigns of strahd are canonical, because strahd's soul also got split with tatyana's, albeit in a different 4th wall way

strahd's birthday is in june

strahd was/is neurodivergent

strahd has empathy/sympathy and suffers from his actions, yet is torn between his desires, passion, and desperation

strahd does love, but he views 'love' as synonymous with 'passion'; in his eyes, his actions are justified because the more intense/passionate he is, the more he is expressing his love

alek, sergei, and tatyana all love strahd (in the 'normal' way), but are unable to fully understand how his mind/brain works

alek, rahadin, and strahd's consorts/partners are ones closest to understanding/loving strahd

strahd converting the consorts to vampires allow them to experience love in the same way strahd does - as passion; this is also why he is so adamant in wanting to convert tatyana or just try to help her understand in his bizarre ways

rahadin existed pre-vampire strahd, but strahd wrote about alek because he was closer to alek than rahadin

strahd's father was abusive/strict to strahd; strahd is attracted to people who act opposite to his father

~~~~~

CoS/DM list (im the DM but some of these i love when other DMs do too):

everyone strahd pursues, romances, or charms are adults

for pcs, all (good/neutral/evil) npcs are romanceable without the consequence of death

campaign's 'soft cap' is 20, with boons

strahd's abilities/CR level up with the party

Vampyr is a legitimate entity/creature, that can be fought or haggled with

you do not need to kill/defeat strahd to 'beat' CoS; 'beating' CoS just means making it out of barovia or 'unlocking' access to enter other domains

can communicate/interact with other domains/darklords via spells/magic items

classic DM move of 'tome of strahd is DMified i, strahd 1 and/or 2'

players can play multiple PCs, but only one PC is able to interact in combat (unless a player is missing/unable to make the session)

classic DM move of tatyana PCs

(my favorite one:) CoS+, aka repeatable CoS games where we develop the story/lore/events based on previous CoS games (although its not really just CoS anymore but ravenloft campaigns)

[sculptorofcrimson]

Where Angels Fear To Go

Fandom: Curse of Strahd

Characters: Strahd, Sergei

Synopsis: The ruminating of Pre-curse Strahd

@vampire-chokehold for you!

“I stopped asking for forgiveness 'cause you should know

Only fools tread where the angels fear to go” - Redemption

Even the devils had once admired the angels. 

They may rot with their claws and horns and fangs, and hover through sulfur stained shadows where roses grow like cobwebs and brass molds like clay, where the circles are suffering and the sinners rejoice. They may rot within the darkness while the celestials dance beneath the stars and sky, they may watch through envious, lustful eyes of jealous worship at what they could have been, at what they once was, the perfection that had been stolen from their corpses. 

Some scriptures say that Lathander had taken their wings when they fell. Some scriptures, my angelic little brother, say that Lathander had torn their wings joint from joint and uprooted their delicate bones from half-divine shoulders. The first demons had fallen, cast down to earth screaming and wailing, weeping amid a storm of their own shredded feathers and corrupted ichor.

Their broken wing feathers can still yet be found. It brings bad luck, certainly, but is it not a marvel as well? The last remnants of their old glory, torn away feather from feather, bone from bone, till they could fly no more than the wretched serpents, sent out to grovel in their misery.

If you were here, my angelic little brother, my Angel, you may have told me that they deserved it. They certainly deserve no better for their sins against your god. But perhaps not. You were always the gentle one, Sergei. The gentry call you the Angel of Barovia, the angel of the morning, the Prince of all that shines. You who could have made Lathander laugh with your joy, and weep with your sorrow. What monster could peer into those shining eyes of such cerulean adoration and turn you away? 

You were always the Angel, Sergei. 

~~~~~~~~~

“But you keep trying to get too close

Saved myself by turning into stone

So save your judgment 'cause you just don't know

But somethings never change, never change”

You scorn Lathander with your love. 

I will not forget the glimmer upon your armor, the very laughter in your words, the genuine joy you could barely contain the moment we had met face to face, the devil and the angel, brothers who were tied with nothing more than blood.

Blood! What an amusement, such a fickle bond to depend upon. 

“Brother,” you had called me, holding me in an embrace practically vibrating with your own delectation. And the sheer jubilation in your regard when I had not refused! I have not the words to describe it. Your demeanor is not so unlike the sun, so timidly and so carefully withholding your searing brilliance behind the mists until you were sure you could scald them to oblivion with your smiles and your exultation.

You were like the sun, like the angels and the prophets of the old. You burn like divinity incarnate, so warm that you were scalding, and so brilliant that you were blinding. You were all that I hated yet all that could love me, you who held a charm beyond compare, and devotion beyond reason.

It would have been so much easier if you had hated me, Sergei.

Lathander would have wept his divine tears had he heard of the sins I have partaken upon, the blood that had washed my armor crimson upon the battlefield. Your god holds no power over my atrocities, there is no forgiveness despite what your flowery words and sermons can proclaim. Why spare me now, Sergei, when my hands are already bathed in enough blood to drown in? Why shine your divine grace upon me, when war has already taken all there is for me to give? 

You would not want to conceive of a hundredth part of the anguish I have endured. Your words are as empty as the tombs of the soldiers who had fallen in combat, whose corpses were never found, whose souls I had once led into battle the same way you lead sheep to a slaughter. Your words are as hollow as the crypts beneath Ravenloft, yet you are far too inebriated with your own innocence to understand such utter misery. I can no more lead an angel to sin than I can bring you to understand the depths of despair I have long since sunk to. 

You damn us both with your ceaseless infatuation. Why do you love me yet, an ancient relic of war and massacres? Is this the childish adoration of a younger brother who has known only of his older brother from his legacy, or is it the unbreakable love of a man too foolish to see he loves a monster? Or perhaps you believe I am someone who deserves to be saved from his eternal misery, someone to be admired and placed upon a pedestal of perfection. 

Perhaps you have deluded yourself into believing I would be resplendent when you finally drag me out before the light of your lord, when I finally repent for my sins and suddenly all shall be forgiven, all the atrocities I’ve committed and all the blood I have spilled. 

I would tell you that you are a fool, Sergei, but I'm afraid I cannot. I cannot pretend there is nothing honorable about your damnable zeal, your unwavering devotion even I cannot shake. One look into your eyes is enough to tell me you would bleed a thousand ways to love me, you would dare go mad from endless prayers and litanies to see me repent. You would smite down the sun for scorning your most adored brother and I would love you none the more for it. 

Sometimes, I try to understand. I try to ponder and wrestle with what strange mind you must have, I try to voice prayers to a god I know will never answer one such as I. 

How? I ask myself, How can you love? 

How can you love someone like me?  

How can you love me, Sergei? How can you look at my legacy of glorified blasphemies and call me admirable? How can you look at the Devil of Barovia, and wrap your angelic wings around his shoulders and comfort him when the sun seems loathsome and its light seems repugnant?

How can you love me, Sergei? 

~~~~~~~~~

“Somethings never change, never change, 

Redemption never came”

Sometimes, I dare wonder. Is it a sin to hate an angel? Is it the mark of a monster, a beast, to hate the brother who loved me so relentlessly, so recklessly? 

Perhaps I am ungrateful, selfish and wretched in my rancor, and loathsome in my resentment. Perhaps I am undeserving of such adoration, of such loyalty, of such loathsome love that it was abhorrent. Perhaps I do not deserve you, Sergei. 

I tire of this game where only one of us plays. I tire of your innocence, of your ceaseless adoration, of your forgiveness and your grace. I tire of you, Sergei. You, who are all that I could have never been, you of innocence and youth, you who have never had to slay your own lieutenant for driving a hole through your gut. 

I tire of you, Sergei. I hate you, Sergei. I hate your innocence, for all you had and all I could have never been, I abhor your faith(so naive, so impossible), I detest your youth, your boundless enthusiasm of which I cannot compare. But most of all, it is your despicable love, your unbreakable devotion to a brother who could not muster up the courage to completely loathe nor love you. 

Answer me, Sergei, I beseech you, Angel of the morning, I beg of you, answer me. 

How could you love? 

How could you love someone like me?

[paperandhis-paper]

Arc-V Month Day 13: Abyss Beneath a Smile

A bit behind, but I have a reason for this. And that's I promised to talk about this bastard:

Aaand I spent all of yesterday unable to come up what I wanted to say. It just be like that sometimes. In fairness, part of the reason for that is that Roget is far from the deepest villain. He’s a simple, but really fun antagonist you love to hate. And sometimes, that’s all you need.

From the moment the Lancers arrive in the Synchro Dimension, he seems untouchable, smugly manipulating everyone from his place of control while the main cast is down in the City suffering. This combined with all the nasty shit he pulls makes you wanna see him go down, and boy does Arc-V deliver in that front. His VA nails his breakdown perfectly, that “SERGEY” scream lives rent-free in my mind.

He’s also a type of villain I personally adore, which is the Smug Snake who thinks they’re hot shit, but is actually pathetic in the grand scheme of things. His “grand scheme” of controlling one city is called out by Reiji to be pathetic, and despite all his boasting, he’s always scared shitless of Yuri and of Academia, capturing Yuzu and Serena simply as a chip to trade in case he needs to save his sorry-ass. 

Control is his whole thing, shown through the recurring chess motifs and his brainwashing of Security, Sergey (sorta), and attempted brainwashing of Yuya. And I love how, once the Commons start rioting, he and Yuya’s plan are, at a glance, the same. He wants to, via Sergey, defeat Jack and unite the city… difference being that he wants to crush the city’s dreams to have them united under his control, whereas Yuya wants to bring everyone together smiling. It’s such a cool little set-up, having both the villain and hero seek the same goal, but in such different ways.

Speaking of Sergey, let me talk a bit about him. I’ll admit, when I first learned Sergey would duel Jack I thought it was random and lame that a Legacy Character would defeat the Big Bad (or his proxy, in this case). Especially when everything seems set-up to have Yuya get revenge for what he did to Yuzu, standard Shonen stuff. Instead, they made the decision of having Sergey BEAT Yuya (admittedly, Barret did most of the damage, through his lame “you can’t play Yugioh” traps, but that’s besides the point) and have Jack be the one to defeat him. But while I’m sure some edgy side of the fanbase would've loved to have seen Awakened Yuya beat his ass, I feel it works because through their duel Jack shows that even terrible people like Sergey can be reached, hence why he rejects Roget’s control and stops grabbing Action Cards (a good use of Action Cards post-Standard, who would’ve thunk?). It also hammers the point that Yuya, despite being the protagonist, isn’t your standard Shonen hero whose role is to defeat the bad guy, but to inspire others and be the one who brings everyone’s strength together.

Anyways, TL:DR evil French bastard fun too root against, but also certified pathetic manfailure.

@arcvmonth

[theocrabalar]

Guns we never got to use in Metal Gear Solid 2

So, instead of gushing over how amazing MGS2 is, let's get down to brass tacks and immediately nerd out over what we didn't get. First off, let's start at the beginning. Olga Gurlukovich, the woman who's the sole reason I start making monkey noises when I see a woman in super baggy pants with suspenders hanging down. She carries a PSS pistol;

The PSS is a silent semi-automatic pistol, this pistol gets tossed overboard before the player can get a chance to use it. If in use by the Gurlukovich mercenaries, we could imagine it would be a pistol with very scarce ammo, but also highly effective, being semi-auto. Probably considered a lethal option to the XM9.

Next up, we have the NRS2. No good in-game picture available, so a picture of the real thing will do;

This highly unusual knife gun, which is fired with the blade pointed towards yourself. For gameplay, this could probably be used for focus on close quarters fighting, but with a possibility of shooting at something in the distance without needing to swap weapons. It would certainly be an interesting option that could make gameplay varied.

Next up, the Colt Single Action Army revolver.

"This is the greatest handgun ever made. The Colt Single Action Army. Six bullets. More than enough to kill anything that moves." It's clear that MGS3 figured out, holy shit, this gun is cool and we need to let the player use it. Especially, with how they added gameplay features to it, they decided to give the gun the ability to ricochet bullets so you can trickshot your way through Tselinogorsk. The same mindset in MGS2 could have made for some really interesting choices considering all the fancy indoor areas and hallways. There's also no proper magnum handgun for the player in MGS2, so if you want a handgun that can blast away common enemies in a single shot to the chest, this could have been it.

Sergei Gurlukovich himself pulls a Makarov on Scott Dolph during the tanker chapter. This would been a basic sidearm for the mercenaries and is understandably cut, it's a gun that it's difficult to make exciting for the player as it would performed the same as the USP, but lower capacity and no laser and no silencer. Then again, it could have been added purely for variety's sake. Which is always good to make something feel vast and a real universe.

"Laugh and grow fat" This one would be interesting in-game for the player. Provided it would be somewhat controllable for skilled players, and sharing ammo with the USP, it could be a hog for churning through your ammo and low range, but if used up closed, you could definitely do some solid bursts of damage. What magazine the gun would have, would definitely help decide if you could bursts a few enemies before reloading, or needing to reloading between every enemy.

This is another special one. It's already very special that a russian mercenary group would use a western shotgun such as the SPAS-12. It also features a combination pump and semi-automatic mechanism. This could in theory allow the player to change the firerate. Who knows for what purpose, there could be some video game logic like how they can only use the really powerful ammunition with a pump-action, and have the less damaging ammo be spammable with the semi-automatic mechanism. Or, they could skip that and make the shotgun be only pump or only semi, and then focus on how it works in that way. It definitely opens up a world of weird gameplay options.

Here's a weird one, a rail gun. MGS2 is a stealth game. I realize that, and I really like it. But it really suffers in the department of being able to do things at a distance outside of set pieces set up for sniping. It would definitely be a New Game Plus type of gun, maybe given out for playing through the game while helping or tranq'ing birds, not killing them. It would definitely be a great gun for taking out bosses. It was later implemented in Peace Walker, but required quite the team effort to use it efficiently. Clearly, the developers also loved this magnificent piece of art and weaponry in game.

Here's another fun one. Assuming it would be a counter to the M4 later available in-game, the AN94, could possibly given the hyper-burst option, making it fire two rounds per trigger press in an insane fire rate. Looking at how the gun has a light or laser mounted onto it's front gas port/gas block, it looks really close to be able to be used by the player already.

Here's a gun that is really known for being cut content. The French FAMAS. How it made it's way to the tanker or plant would be difficult to imagine considering it was supposed to be only for the genome soldiers in Alaska in MGS1. It would occupy the same purpose as the AKS74u and the M4 as well, so it wouldn't add anything new to the player, but it would feel familiar for returning MGS1 players. While not correct, the gun could have had a three round burst to differentiate it, like how it does in Counter-Strike 1.6 which is what I really know it from, form these days.

The FN P90. What a wonderful PDW. Again, another gun that's understandable that we don't have access to, as it wouldn't contribute much, but would also clutter an already weird to navigate inventory. It's equipped with the original old red dot sight, so in first person view, that would actually be very different for regular players of first person shooters with iron sights from these days.

Here's a really weird one, the SPP-1M Underwater pistol. Wait what? So in the original design of MGS2, there was an even greater focus on the underwater parts of the gameplay, even more fighting. Which explains why someone would suggest adding an pistol focused on underwater fighting. Probably also related to the cut Dead Cell member who went by the name "Chinaman" who was an olympic level swimmer, and if Vamp's boss fight wasn't annoying enough, I can totally see the need for a gun in that section. There is leftover code in the game that suggest this got quite far in development for player use, the gun itself as far as I know, don't have a model in-game.

And here for the last firearm that should/could have been available to the player. The M203 grenade launcher. It's very clearly shown off in several cutscenes, being used by both the Navy Seals when confronting Fortune, as well as Snake Plissken;

How this would be utilized in-game would be interesting. Could definitely be a very viable boss-encounter weapon with it's full-auto capability from the M4, and then being able to somehow quickly switch over to using the grenade launcher. So in conclusion, many of this firearms were considered, but when we think about it, we can also clearly understand why much of it was cut, so there would be less work to do on bland equipment, so the developers could rather focus and shine up all the equipment that is actually interesting gameplay wise.

Most images blatantly stolen/copied from IMFDB.org, MetalGear.fandom.com and Wikipedia.

[normal-looking-male]

So I may be coming in with either a cold take or overthinking things, or even worse, blatantly misinterpreting them, but I gotta ramble about my favourite song somewhere, so...

Okay, so, chorus one opens with the "cold breaking point" line, right when Katya gets out of the facility with Dima, they got a taste of freedom, fun times.

Chorus two opens with completely unrelated words, contemplating Dima's and/or Yura's viewpoint, but still, it's Katya deflecting from the situation, because she just can't give into the same negative mindset as Dima, she's clinging onto the hope that this will work out for her.

I can't remember where it was stated, but apparently Katya was starving in that little instrumental bit between the second and third choruses, where she was counting. I mostly just saw her sitting there, trying to calm down the bubbling constant anxiety of being found out, of her friends abandoning her if they find out about her whole mutation situation, of Dima being right.

Chorus thee goes right back to the "cold breaking point" lyrics, because just like that, with one decision Sergei made, her freedom, her chance at a normal life, was ripped away from her. How easy it would be now for her to go right back to where she started - in that exact facility that treated her like cattle. And then the second part of it just beats her down further, as if she hasn't suffered enough.

It is such a good and cruelly ironic knife twist - Dima was so insistent on avoiding humanity, justifiably distrustful, and he got a place to live, a girlfriend, an adult that protects him. And Katya, who risked her well-being, who tried so hard to establish friendly connections, had to hide out at an abandoned pool, with not really many people to rely on, besides herself, mostly taking the role of a reliable person for Yura. And she ended up in exactly the situation Dima thought they'd be in, while Dima himself is safe.

I'm very biased against Dima, honestly, but if I may add my few cents on the matter - I feel that even though he feels awful guilt for the whole situation, he wants to be as far away from it as possible. We've seen him scared, but in Convergence, at the "connection cable" line, he looks petrified. For the rest of the song he's justifiably angry at Yura for baiting him and Anya with Olya's well-being, but they don't really have any other option besides working together, and the contempt he feels for Yura is so clear in his expressions, it's great.

I reads to me as if he's not only genuinely worried about Olya's safety, but himself as well, and really wants to wipe his hands clean of this mess, even if it means Katya's pretty much screwed. And I love it! He's by no means a terrible person, neither him nor Katya should have to deal with this in the first place, but it is what it is, and I'm on the "narrator's" side here every time he's called a coward.

I got off-track, back to the song- I think it stands out in how... Heavy? It sounds? To me it reads a lot like a violently beating heart, combined with violent electricty just waiting to break out. It feels like Katya's in a constant battle to keep her emotions under control, and just barely contain her own destructive abilities, that could cost her, if not her own discovery and capture, then someone else's life. And the way the instrumental is pretty smooth and relaxed during the verses, but the snares and louder noises pick up as dread, excitement, or desperation kicks in. GOOD SONG!!

[meggigoering]

📖September 28, 2023

🦈We have a new entertainment. The stinky stopped interfering his chemistry with delicious urine supplements. Now the mustard gas in our apartment is as clean as a tear. The stinky moron is a moron, so he believes that such a hellish concentrate can spread around the apartment imperceptibly. It's full of pus lungs, and it feels like they've been full of bricks in the chest. And the eyes are completely covered with pus. Me and the dogs got sick from this fucking pneumonia, and we walk like rabbits with red eyes. Sergei Mikhailovich Shumilov's stinky smells a stream from his nose and lungs, but the stinky moron does not give up. His ass burns to the fullest, together with his girlfriend Shumilova Tatiana Vladimirovna, so the poisoners cut their chemistry to the maximum. I hope our neighbors will crucify him for this when they find out what is so delicious in the general ventilation of the house entrance. Me and my dogs recognized this smell, we were treated by this crap by another friend of "mother" Shumilova Tatiana Vladimirovna - Dr. Svetlana Fomina, who on the blue eye still took money from me for renting an apartment where we breathed this shit. In short, only these oligophrens - the Orekhovskaya gang family of the Shumilovs, Sveta Fomina with Asya Ramazanova, and their best friend Ali Uzdenov, who supplies them with this shit, naively believe that the poisoning is imperceptible and will not leave traces. Photos with ulcers and tests of my dogs have already flown around the investigative units and veterinarians. Now I have the same ulcers on my face, and the tests have already been drawn in full. The fact is that the mustard gas very characteristically changes the picture of blood, and in principle it is not difficult to find out what ozonated me and my dogs here. I would say that the unique trace left by the mustard gas in the blood of the poisoned person cannot be confused with anything. Only Uzdenov and his Orekhovsjaya family believe that they are clean. There's nothing surprising about that! The mustard gas, as I used to write, provokes a cruel runny nose, so the stinky does not feel his stench himself, it has snot to the knee. It is not surprising that Uzdenov with his employees and friends Ramazanova, Fomina, and Tanyushka Shumilova do not taste the odor, while their whole backs are in shit. These are all cruel jokes of the mustard gas, they beat off the aromas of even the very last shit.

The very juicy point for this community of professional stinky possums, that this mustard gas smell my grandfather, the genuine son of Mikhail Iiyuch Tolstoy and Elena Lvovna Koutchubei, who died in the same apartment from lung gangrene, which started as an acute pneumonia before, and my grandmother, the genuine daughter of Roman Ivanovich Bagration and Elena Aleksandrovna Volkonskaya-Rakhmanova, who suddenly fell ill and died with a series of heart attacks, would easily recognize. I would also laugh at coincidences, only an episode of beating me by a stinky until an ovarian rupture and a stomach bruise was handed over to the investigative department at the place of my grandmother's death. Actually, on this topic, a visit from the criminal investigation of the Samara Central Board took place to the long-suffering apartment on Maslennikova 16-13. If the personal visit of the slaughter department of the Samarsky glavk didn't reach the stinky, don't wait for miracles from publications on social media.

The fact that the stinky began to pour chemistry again was also clear from the way his theatrical inflammation of cunning sharply worsened again. And he pricks in his ass, and his heart hurts, and he will die soon. Like an opossum that pretends to be dead, exating the stench of dokhlyatina, opens one eye to watch the theatrical effect, the stinky performs the same thing. The beast is the beast.

Their ass burns to the fullest, that's why they try to finish me quickly, and, as it seems to them, cleverly, and imperceptibly finish me off. Now they are pouring shock doses of mustard gas, thank God now there is no stinky urine, and for some incomprehensible reason it seems to them that it is imperceptible. Poor Uzdenov, the man did not expect that his work to treat my teeth would go to dust. The creation of a beautiful bite of the future corpse of my future substitute did not lead to the desired result, but led to the transfer of the criminal case from Istra (where NP Bunkovo together with A1 are still in happily ignorance that there is a criminal case, judging by the answers they wrote to the FSB - they were sent to me, I read everything, laughed for a long time), to the glorious city of Samara, where there are still some morons from the Orekhovskaya gang family, who were settled in my inherited apartment, not at all embarrassed that the "dad" chosen to me does not look like, to put it mildly, to my dad, and even expertise is not required for this, since the absence of biological kinship of this character with my biological ancestors - grandparents and their ancestors, can obviously be seen with the naked eye. So the case was transferred to Samara for my house in Istra under a slaughter article. Now I'm sitting airing the apartment again, and with the first horse I'm already rushing to decide on the issue of these scum being closed in jail before the trial, since they can't and don't want to be free as white people while they are given such an opportunity. Therefore, today's post again, unfortunately, is not about productivity, and various cool things that I do, but again about the smelly stinky and terrorism. I hope, there are no unanswered questions left about what's the substance of my litigation against AFK Sistema SberAlfa-VTB. Just the murder of my both parents, my sister, my dogs, and numerous assasination attempts against me, if very roughly to explain the heart of the story. Oh yes, they also hacked a few accounts for me, and cut down the websites of the hasheight group's businesses, but these are trifles. I had to redo several sites and reload social media accounts, but these are such small issues considering the substance of the case. So the sites of HASHEIGHT, #davnosti, and Raevskaya Business School are not working yet as expected, they are under reconstruction, and I warned you. But now you know the reason.

Why have these bastards been in the sacred ignorance for so long that there are criminal cases? Yes, because no correspondence went to my mobile phones in the form of standard messages and calls. Confidentiality and data protection in the VTB Systema "SberAlfa Groupp" exist only in their social responsibility reports. In reality, they freely intercept and modify messages and wiretapping calls. What the fck about the organized "business" gangs that control all mobile communications in the country, such trifles as the law? Therefore, I did not discuss anything on the phone, did not correspond, and in general the communication was carried out in a different way. And since the methods and means of communication were unknown to these clowns - that is, they were without direct communication on a mobile phone, they believed that there were actually no communications or criminal cases. This is their first monstrous mistake.

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[nicklloydnow]

“In the case of Russia, the process for commanding the use of nuclear weapons requires the sign-off of multiple officials, unlike the system in the United States, where the commander in chief has full latitude. That said, the Russian military has a disproportionate impact on nuclear policy; there are few outside analysts who can sway the Kremlin’s decisions on nuclear weapons. And although the system by which nuclear commands are issued is strictly centralized in Russia, the command and control of low-yield—or so-called tactical—nuclear weapons creates particular challenges for Western policymakers seeking to prevent Russian nuclear use.

(…)

In the United States, the president can order nuclear strikes without any oversight. That is not the case in Russia. The Russian constitution, the country’s defense laws, its military doctrine, and its formal principles on nuclear deterrence do say that only the president can order the use of nuclear weapons in combat and that only the president can order a nuclear weapons test. Yet all public accounts of Russia’s nuclear command-and-control system indicate that the president needs the consent of other key officials before the military can follow through on any nuclear command.

Like his U.S. counterpart, Putin has a so-called nuclear briefcase that aides keep with him at all times. But so do two other people: Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, and Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the military’s general staff. An order must pass from both Putin’s briefcase and the briefcase of one of the other two military officials before Russia can use nuclear weapons. Gerasimov’s sign-off is especially important, and perhaps even essential. Any nuclear order must be authenticated through a central nuclear command post of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces, which is under the direction of Gerasimov’s general staff.

As with many aspects of Russia’s nuclear strategy, these checks and balances were inherited from the Soviet Union. Soviet leaders sought to ensure that no single person—an aging Communist Party leader, for example, or one suffering from dementia—could unleash nuclear Armageddon on a whim. At the same time, the system was designed to prevent the military from ordering strikes on its own. As a result, every public source today indicates that the Russian president has to be involved in a nuclear order.

(…)

Putin’s statements on nuclear doctrine reflect the positions of the Russian military, which is where the country’s current nuclear planners and policymakers all reside. There is no think tank, no Russian equivalent of the RAND Corporation, that can raise substantive challenges to Russian nuclear strategy, and so general staff and scientists dominate the country’s nuclear debates. Putin, of course, could have opinions of his own, and he could solicit input from members of his closest circle—such as Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Security Council. But the views of the armed forces will most closely inform Putin’s nuclear decisions.

If Putin were to seriously consider nuclear use, he would consult with Gerasimov and Shoigu, both of whom are old-timers in his regime and still have his trust. In response, Gerasimov’s staffers (who oversee nuclear planning in Russia) would provide the three leaders with key aspects of current policy and ongoing debates about what political outcomes nuclear weapons use could produce and at what risk. The staff would then make a recommendation on whether Russia should carry out an attack or reserve this option for later. If they were to recommend nuclear use, or were ordered to place options on the table, they would likely provide detailed advice about what kind of attack to consider, what weapon to use, what type of target to hit, where in the world the strike should occur, and what the anticipated consequences would be.

(…)

The president and one of his two top military officials would still have to order the use of a tactical warhead. But beyond that step, there is less available public information about this part of Russia’s nuclear protocol than there is about the procedures guiding the country’s larger weapons. And protocols surrounding low-yield weapons are more likely to have changed after the Cold War, when Russian doctrine increased the number of scenarios in which it would embrace nuclear use. For example, it is likely that the authorization of nuclear use is now detached from early warning systems that detect an incoming missile attack on Russia. The country, in other words, appears to be more comfortable with being the first one to use nuclear weapons in a conflict than it was in the past.

(…)

The most perilous moment will be when Ukraine is on the cusp of victory, and Putin feels he can salvage his invasion only through an unprecedented escalation. But another perilous moment will come if Russian military or political leaders decide that a direct military confrontation with NATO is inevitable. It is this second contingency that Western policymakers should actively seek to mitigate, by using calibrated deterring communication and military maneuvers that cannot be misinterpreted as preparations for an operation against Russia.

A nuclear attack is unlikely to help Russia win its war of aggression in Ukraine. Moscow’s theory about first use—that it will force a terrified Ukraine and a shaken West to sue for peace instead of continuing to fight—is unlikely to be borne out. The Ukrainians appear committed to fighting at any cost, and more horror will only harden their resolve. Western policymakers will not let Putin get away with using nuclear weapons to succeed in conquest, an act that would set a terrible precedent. Instead, it will lead them to redouble their efforts to make Russia pay a price for its aggression.

But Russian nuclear use in Ukraine or beyond would cause horrible devastation. It would lead Western and Russian decision-makers alike into uncharted territory. It would produce extremely difficult choices for the United States about a range of issues, including the right level of political and military denunciation and punishment, for example. It will also challenge NATO to formulate a suitable response. In short, the situation would require calibrated statecraft from leaders everywhere to de-escalate from what would be the most dangerous moment in modern history.”

[zhongliologist]

The Persistence of Time | Zhongli

Pairing: Zhongli x Gender Neutral!Reader

Genre: ANGST!! ANGST!!!!

Words: 3.1k

AN: Sorry this took a while!! I was trying to gather enough lore for this to work;;; I hope it was ok >////<!!! 

Now Playing: How Can I Love the Heartbreak, You’re the One I Love - AKMU; Vocalise, Op.34 - Sergei Rachmaninoff; Pavane pour une infante defunte, M.19 - Maurice Ravel

*

“That era has passed. Nothing that belonged to it exists anymore.”

-Wong Kar-Wai, In the Mood for Love

There was no sadness, no pain,

Just a longing for a moment in my life

Where everything seemed right,

Where happiness was due,

And where you and I existed.

I thought it would encompass infinity;

Towards the recesses of the universe

and the end of time.

Yet it passed us without telling;

It had passed without us knowing.

And I am now alone—

Left with a bleak emptiness,

Knowing what and how it felt to be

Complete.

*

“Please forgive me.”

It was there on that day when the gentle sea breeze became harsh gale, when the serene mountains behind him became tall ominous shadows reflecting the darkness cast upon his face. It was when the monotonous world was painted with vivid hurtful tones of silence and heartbreak; gnashing at his heart as it cut the final slivers of happiness left in him.

On that rather peaceful night, when the layers of dust that covered his heart finally blew away, Zhongli finally unearthed the haunting truth he tried to bury. After thousands of years, after monuments turn into ruins, and monoliths turn into sand, and wash away into the shores of time, he finally felt his heart tremble again.

Please forgive me.

“I am truly grateful to be able to receive your love…”

He could see it. Against the dark void of the cloudless sky, he saw it all in your eyes: the pain he had caused, killing you slowly inside like some torturous mechanism devised only by him. It had also cut him open, bleeding bloodless as he tried to force the words out of his lips.

Please…forgive me…

He didn’t want to say it; he didn’t want to hurt you. If only he could pull you to his embrace, wrap you around his arms so tenderly to ease the woes of your heart. If only he had that choice in the first place. He wished he had at that moment. But this was for the best.

“…and I also have come to realize my feelings for you, but—”

Truly, truly, he loves you. More than you can ever imagine; more than what you were thinking of right now as you stood motionless, awaiting his words. He would move mountains, divide the seas for you. He would do everything for you. And the moment you told him how you felt earlier that night was one of the happiest moments in his life, but even then, the tale must end before it could even begin.

He couldn’t risk it. You who had became so precious to him in a span of a few months, he couldn’t risk it. For you to be with a person like him; you deserved better.

“I have already resigned myself to this loneliness.”

Please forgive me.

Heartbreak is momentary. It will soon disappear, and you will soon forget about him. You will move on and find the happiness that he couldn’t give you in the arms of someone else. It felt like thorns around his throat, poison in his chest when he thought about it, yet it has to be done.

This pain will eventually be forgotten.

As he gazed at you, your eyes stunned and holding back tears he wished he could wipe away, Zhongli felt it pierce through him; more painful than any blade or arrow that ever wounded him. But this was for your own good.

“…why…?” you finally asked, eyes too weak to hold any more tears; leaving him more remorseful than ever before. “Don’t I deserve to know why?”

He grit his teeth, cursing silently at the wind. He always admired how you would never give up despite your gentle nature, but right now, it didn’t make things any easier.

“You and I both know what we feel…” you shouted at him, voice trembling. “So why…? Why can’t we be together?”

It was too much. Clenching his hands into fists, he turned away before he could give in to you; his brows furrowing in pain as he heard your sobs being swept by the wind.

“Zhongli!” you screamed, your chest too tight to be able to breathe as your voice diminished into a plea. “…answer me…please…”

His hand was trembling as he tried to hold the hurt in; to keep it suppressed into a tiny pebble inside his chest. But there will always be a point in time when he had to lose strength, when he was at his weakest—and you perfectly hit that mark when you asked him why with so much vulnerability.

“Not now…” he began, his words finally lost to him. “But if you really wish to know, see me tomorrow. At the Guili Ruins.”

*

If only the weather would also stay true to your feelings, it would’ve been a bit better.

Yet the sun was shining brightly, and the sky a deep cobalt blue with tiny whisps of titanium white clouds as it rolled across the expansive visage of the Guili Plains. Life moved on faster than your heart could ever catch up, even if it got broken just the night before.

And the one who broke it was just a few steps ahead.

Zhongli stood waiting for you just beside the main dirt road, mind always wandering farther than his feet could take him. You always wondered where his thoughts took him, or what was in his mind when he told you he had already ‘resigned to loneliness’.

As you approached him with a dread for the truth, you reminded yourself that this was what you asked for. That night, he seemed like he wouldn’t even give you an explanation if you hadn’t pressed him for it, and you wondered what was the reason for that. Now that you have arrived, it wouldn’t take long for you to finally discover what the answer was.

“…Zhongli,” you called out to him softly, stealing him away from his reveries.

He promptly gazed at you, amber eyes lingering for far too long for it to be just a simple glance. But before you could ask him why, he turned away coldly.

“Follow me.”

It stung you—how easily he could shut you off, how easily he could push you away even though you knew what he actually felt. Your eyes widened briefly, unused to this stone cold Zhongli, but you decided not to dwell on it before it could permanently hurt you. Crying when things had barely begun wouldn’t amount to anything.  

Ruins buried halfway on the ground dotted the green landscape; scattered into miniscule pieces that were no longer discernable. If only you could see how shattered your heart was, it would’ve looked similar to these desolate ruins. As you trailed behind him, unable to look at the same back you once embraced, you once leaned on to; your eyes simply gazed down on the ground just to tame these tumultuous tides of emotions.

If only you knew how much Zhongli tried to contain himself—balling his hands into tight fists, his teeth gritting at the way he kept on hurting you. He once was someone who could wear coldness in the face of carnage, yet right now, as you gazed at him with eyes so hopeful, he could feel the mask crumbling, cracking away piece by piece.

But this is for your own good—he reminded himself for the millionth, billionth, nth time.

Eventually he stopped walking, just standing right before a glowing circle on the ground. You could see a cliff behind him, overlooking a sea of long-forgotten stone ruins.

“The Guili Plains were once home to the Guili Assembly,” Zhongli began as he faced you, expression unreadable. “A precursor to the harbor city of Liyue, the Assembly was once ruled over by the God of Dust, Guizhong, and the Geo Archon Rex Lapis.”

You raised a brow at him.

It was already no surprise that Zhongli is Rex Lapis. You were long suspicious and he eventually told you, but you wondered what was the point of all of this; why he specifically asked to meet at this certain place, telling you a tale that has been buried under the sands of time. All you asked him was why he had to reject you.

“Yet the Archon Wars continued to set the lands of Liyue ablaze, and we struggled to protect the people we vowed to protect,” he continued, eyes holding no semblance of emotion, as if he had left everything behind in the distant past. “In the end, we were not strong enough. I was not strong enough to protect even Guizhong.”

You simply stood there, regarding him silently as the cogs in your head turned. For the first time today, you finally heard his stoic expression crack. Did he deeply regret Guizhong’s death that even after thousands of years, he still hasn’t moved on?

“I was too weak, too powerless,” his said his voice trailing off as he finally gave in to the vulnerability. “There was no reason for her to perish. Guizhong was gentle with her people, more compassionate than I could ever be, yet…yet…I—”

He wished he didn’t have to recall that certain moment which was still etched vividly in his memory to this very day, yet you really had to ask him why. You who had been looking at him so lovingly all this time, harboring no hatred in your heart—Zhongli could no longer conceal any more of these emotions which plague him for millennia.  

As you watched him visibly shake as the stone wall he had set up earlier crumbled into dust, you couldn’t help but feel the pain he had gone through over the years. Your heart ached for him, wondering what he must’ve felt when he lost the people he had once considered close to him. It became clear to you that the one thing he needed the least was loneliness.

Taking the first step, you walked towards him and cupped his cheek; forcing him to face you. It felt like a jab as soon as you noticed the hurt in his eyes, even with words unspoken, you immediately knew how much he had suffered.

“She was precious to you, wasn’t she?” you asked, tracing circles on his skin, your voice soft.

“YN…” Zhongli called out your name, his eyes giving a glimpse of how he truly felt as they gazed into yours. “I…I—”

Finally, he collapsed as you pulled him to your embrace. He held on to you tightly; burying his head on your shoulders, hoping that the pain would at least subside if he was in your arms.

“I…I promised her…back then. I promised…I would become the strength to support her and her people. Yet I could not even fulfill that promise…” he continued as he sobbed into your shoulders. “She was always loving to everyone…yet even I, as an Archon…could not…”

For the first time in a long while, Zhongli allowed tears to pour from his eyes as he continued to embrace you. He was enamored with you at first because of how much you reminded him of Guizhong, yet the more time he spent with you, the more he fell for you, he realized that you were different from her. Yet he still couldn’t deny his feelings. He still fell in love with you.

“I am terrified, YN…if I can’t even protect her, then…how can I even keep you safe…?”

You forced your chest to stop clenching tightly when you heard his words. Of course, there was a pang of jealously—of how much he treasured her that he still carried it with him over the years. But at the same time, you felt sorry for him. Even if he did everything he could, he still blames himself for what had happened.

“If you would die as well because of these hands… then I will never be able to forgive myself. That is why I must push you away before any misfortune shall befall you. This is the only way I could protect you.”

He couldn’t stop. He had to say everything. You had to know.

“Even…even if it pains me to see you leave, to see you love someone else, then I must endure. As long as you are happy, as long as you are alive, then I have nothing to regret.”

Brushing your hands through his long hair, you comforted him the best that you could.

“Zhongli…you blockhead…” you whispered as you rubbed his back gently. “I would never be happier if I couldn’t stay by your side. I would never be happy if you’re in pain. Please don’t carry this burden all by yourself. If I am in your arms, then I will always feel safe. You don’t have to shoulder the responsibility of protecting me all alone, I am fully capable of protecting myself, you know.”

Pulling away, Zhongli gazed into your eyes, as you wiped his tear stained face clean with a ghost of a smile. “What happened to Guizhong was a tragedy that came from a war you had already won. Yet you had led her people safely despite your shortcomings and your mistakes.”

“Look at Liyue now,” you continued. “Do you see how beautiful it is? These majestic plains and pools and mountain tops were sculpted by your very hands. Yes, you may have failed to protect her, but her legacy continues on because of you. Liyue Harbor exists because of both of your efforts, and we would have never met if you had never stumbled and fell. No matter how many mistakes you make, she would’ve already forgiven you, knowing how much you worked hard for Liyue even if you say you’re not suited for it. She’ll be proud of you.”

Again, he felt his heart trembled at your very words; the stone which covered it gradually cracking open. He had never told anyone about his regrets before, and it felt so light, knowing that he had you now, knowing that you would understand him. He wouldn’t have to feel so alone.

“YN…” Zhongli whispered, holding your cheeks between his hands as he stared at you with an evocative gaze.

In a moment’s surprise, he captured your lips in a soft yet vulnerable kiss; pouring everything he felt for you at that moment. You could feel it as he swept pass your lips, the intensity of his emotions and the gentleness of his touch. Whatever happened in the past will stay in the past. Right now, he had you.

Gasping for air, the both of you glanced at each other as words unspoken passed between you. He was grateful to have met you in this lifetime. Considering that he is a god who had lived thousands of years, the chances of meeting someone like you was terrifyingly low. But even then, he felt lucky.

“I know you can’t forgive yourself this easily, but I’m sure that you’ll get there,” you told him as you held on to his hand. “I will always be right beside you; to help you get up if you stumble again. I’ll be your support as you come into terms with your own regrets. It will take time, but we have all the time in the world.”

“Thank you,” Zhongli replied, bringing your hand to his lips, kissing it gently with a smile on his face. “

“Come here,” he told you as he slowly turned and walked towards the cliffside. “I have something yet to show you.”

Curious, you followed him to where he sat; leaning against a stone wall that was once part of a greater structure. Sitting next to him at a ledge, you watched as he produced an intricate cube, floating on the air as he held it closely. It seemed to be made of stone yet the streaks around it were glowing golden.

“This is a dumbbell called Memory of Dust,” he prefaced, turning it around gently. “It was something Guizhong gave to me before I lost her, saying that if I can unlock it then perhaps…”

You turned to him curiously. “Perhaps what?”

He gazed at the object with a sighed. “She was never able to finish what she said, and I was never able to unlock it.”

Humming, you leaned your head to inspect it closely. “She didn’t leave any clues?”

“Unfortunately, not.”

“I wonder what it contains—”

“YN!”

As soon as you touched it however, the sides of the object began moving as Zhongli swiftly moved you away from it, shielding you behind him. The cube continued to move as it floated a little further away and began glowing much brighter than ever before.

In a bright flash of light, the object imploded and the next thing Zhongli noticed was familiar voice that seem to be humming just beside his ear. He stood there, feet frozen to the ground, and simply allowed the moment to happen.

“I see. It seems you had finally understood how to become ‘human’…to be able to connect to someone and empathize, to finally understand love, and how to love whole heartedly, to lay down all your burdens and lean on for support. Now it is time for you to experience it. You have done well.”

“…Guizhong…?”

“Here is the Persistence of Time. It is slow changing and persistent. It will continue to flow like tides and ripples in a vast and never-ending fabric of the universe. Everything will be washed away and buried; tucked away until it decimates into grains of sand. Fragments, memory and meaning—all forgotten as those who remember them had long left this world. Yet as time continues to persist, then so too shall love exist past the constraints of time and memory. I shall continue to watch over you, over Liyue, as the new age of mankind dawns. Live well, my Lord.”

He had never expected to hear a voice he hadn’t heard for such a long time. Yet by the time the presence had disappeared and vanished into the air, he could finally feel some sense of peace; closure.

“Oh? You’re smiling.” Zhongli finally heard your voice as you leaned against him; your eyes seemingly knowing yet refusing to tell.

“Am I?” he asked as he offered you his arm. “I am simply grateful of your love, and of your patience with me. If you had given up that night, I would have never understood.”

You hummed. “There was something in that object after all, but then again, I’m happy. Next time, please don’t just jump into plans that aren’t even well thought out. We have each other now, don’t we?”

In a moment’s notice, Zhongli cupped your cheek; giving your lips a small but gentle peck.

“I shall be counting on you then.”

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Your post about trauma and how characters handles it in Bardugo’s post really makes me think how she writes and handles what she deems as feminine men, traumatized men, or generally how she sees neurodivergency. Like I sorta loathe Alina’s attitude towards Harshaw, how she sees him as creepy. I also loathe how Yuri Vedenen was written, that a traumatized young man is only ever weak and feeble. It’s weird. It’s so weird.

Yeah she's not great at writing trauma full stop she either doesn't portray it very well like with Alina who we don't really see how her traumas have effected her outside of her having a couple of nightmares, or she does the opposite where she gives a character a very accurate reaction to trauma like sergei but then treats them like they are weak and a hindrance which is a very damaging message to be sending. But now that you've mentioned it alot of these characters with trauma that are then displayed as weak are men. It's like that comment she made about how if you wanted to know which characters she was going to kill then look for the white straight males. It just seems like she doesn't consider the trauma men face as valid and she often makes villains of traumatised men. Like you said its weird and not ok.

As for Yuri I haven't read those books and to be honest I probably won't, I have however looked up his character on the grishaverse fandom wiki and once again you've got this traumatised young boy who was abused, he's similar to the darkling in alot of ways and it makes sense why he was drawn to him. But in other ways his story follows the same path as Alina. He starts out believing in the darkling but as time goes on he becomes horrified by the darkling's actions and tries to act against him and stop him. And just like Alina it seems like he is punished for falling for the darkling's charms because he ends up trapped in a tree along with the darkling even though in the end he tried to do the right thing. Which seems to be another theme of LB's works, Alina tried to do the right thing and was punished for it by losing her powers, Aleks tried to do the right thing and was punished for it by death once and then eternity of suffering, Yuri tried to do the right thing and got the same fate as the darkling. Which again just seems like a weird message to me.

[ariel-seagull-wings]

TOP 12 BEAUTIES (FROM BEAUTY AND THE BEAST)

@princesssarisa @sunlit-music @mademoiselle-princesse @the-blue-fairie

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Growing up, Beauty and The Beast has always been one of the fairy tales wich i have a deep emotional connection. I love how it combines elements of adventure, mystery, horror, comedy, drama and romance to form a beautifull narrative about external versus internal beauty, coming of age, self-discovery, familial love, friendship, building of a romantic love and redemption. And connecting me to this emotional rollercoaster of a story, is the heroine, the curious and sensitive Beauty, who faces her fear of the unknown to save the life of her father, and trough this act of sacrifice discovers eternal happiness in the most unlikely of places.

And tonight, i make this humble ranking in tribute to her.

12º Mitsuko Horie as Maria in Grimm’s Fairy Tale Classics (1989)

In this anime episode based on the german variant The Summer and Winter Garden, we are presented to Maria, a simple and hardworking peasant girl who is kidnapped by the Beast away from her family home. Maria lives a long period of silent sadness in the Beasts palace, until he starts to show a more sensitive and considered side, and she forgives him. When he lets her go visiting her family, Maria has to say goodbye to her father, who dies, and due to her grief, forgets for a moment of Beast’s castle. And after finally remembering, she rushes in despair hoping to save Beasts’s life...

Maria is the most vulnerable encarnation of Beauty, and one cannot help but constantly want to hug her in protection.

11º Léa Seydoux as Belle in Christophe Gans’s La Belle et La Bête (2014)

A young woman who tries to act always calm and serious, but inside herself hides deep sadness and melancholy, born from the feeling that she is considered guilty for the death of her mother at her childbirth. So she treats her journey to the Beast’s castle as a way to make amends, because she feels that if her father went to die at the Beast’s hands for picking a rose that she asked for, it would be another death that would be her guilt. And in the castle, exploring the mirrors that reveal the Beast’s past, she learns that someone shares her desire of becoming cleaned from any feeling of guilt, and take its right to happiness.

10º Trish Van Devere as Belle Beaumont in Beauty and The Beast (1976)

An older, more grounded and no nonsense, but still sensitive portrayal. Coming from a family formed by a well-intentioned but misguided father, two materialistic and mean spirited older sisters, a vulnerable younger brother and a cruel brother-in-law,  Van Devere’s Belle has great pressure over her shoulders to be the voice of reason to people around her, wich makes us empathize with the state of tiredness she gets in. She is always tough and honest when necessary, and kind and gentle when she also needs to be.

09º Nina Krachkovskaya/Amy Irving as Anastasia/Nastenka in Soyuzmultifilm’s Alenkiy Tsvetochek (1952)

In this animated short adaptation of the russian variant The Scarlet/Crimson Flower, writen by Sergey Aksakov, our Beauty is Nastenka, the youngest daughter of a brave captain of a merchant ship. Nastenka is a dreamer, shy, and prone to philosophical melancholy, even tough she doesn’t necessarily knows the reason of her sadness, what makes her self-discovery all the more relatable to audiences, specially young ones.

08º Marina Ilichyova as Aljona in Irina Povolotskaya’s Alenkiy Tsvetochek (1977)

Besides also sharing the shiness, sadness and melancholy of her animated counterpart, the peasant-girl-next-door Aljona is also a deeply frightened young woman, whose narrative arc involves learning to let herself loose a bit more, and not let her fears dominate her. This arc is highlighted in the moments where she gives a subtle smile when she talks to and plays along the Beast of the Forest.

07º Joyce Taylor as Lady Althea in Edward L. Kahn’s Beauty and The Beast (1962)

An elegant and confident noble lady, Lady Althea is the fiancée of the wise, brave and humble Duke Eduardo. She arrives at the dukedom excited with the wedding, but makes a discovery: since assuming power as a ruler, Eduardo is under a curse that turns him into a Beast every night. Now Althea has to deal with the dillema of staying to support her fiancée with her love, or leaving, in fear of his Beast side, and Joyce Taylor’s performance in the role engages us into this dilema till the end.

06º Dima Bawab as Zémire in Zémire et Azor (2014)

This comic ópera composed by the belgian André Grétry transports the story to a fairy tale land combination between France and Persia, presenting us to the adorable Zémire, a merry, romantic and idealistic young lady, who enjoys letting herself get loose in a world of dreams, reading books of fantastical stories. She also is curious and inquisitive, insistently questioning the servant Ali until he thells what concers so much her father, so she gets to take the journey to the palace of Azor, the Prince turned into a Beast. There, at first she is scared, but then, showing a sense of wonder, starts playing with the wolves that guard the palace and have merry conversations with Azor, with whom she eventually falls in love.

05º Josette Day as Belle in Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et La Bête (1946)

At the same time a relatable audience surrogate, and an individual character in her own right. Day’s Belle starts as a mysteryous woman, with a stoic, resilient face, and elegant, if rigid, gait. As the film rolls, we slowly get to piece her passions, her vulnerabilities and her fears. Specially her fear of leaving the comfort of her family home life, adventuring to the unknown, and falling in love.

04º Vanessa Williams as Beauty in Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales For Every Child (1995)

The sister of a tall and strong, tough lazy man, named Tree, and a pretty, tough vain lady, named Precious, William’s Beauty is brave, truthfull, altruístic, and also has a light hearted sense of humour and an introspective sensibility. The highlight of this encarnation is when she is at her home room’s window, she sings a song pondering her doubts between staying at her family home, or returning to the Beast’s palace.

03º Beauty from Megan Kearney’s Beauty and The Beast Webcomic (2012-17)

Made as a tribute to other Beauties that camed previously, while being her own version. An emotionally repressed young woman, who lost her mother at childbirth, and suffered bullying during childhood, being called ‘ugly duckling’ by other kids, Kearney’s Beauty grows burying her emotions in the hard work on her family’s farm, and is in search of an identity and a place in the world. One day she asks for a rose that grows in winter that appeared in her dreams, and this is the exciting incident that catapults her journey to the Beast’s enchanted castle, where she blossoms into a lady who is brave, witty and confident. 

02º Paige O’Hara as Belle in Disney’s Beauty and The Beast (1991)

The first encarnation i ever saw when i was a child. The young lady who newly arrived at a small village, with an introspective bookworm behaviour that is the target of her neighbours. She doesn’t pay attention to the gossip, but laments her loneliness, and longs for a friend who understands her sensitivity and shares her desire for adventure in the great wild somewhere. When she first meets the Beast, she resists coming closer to him,  who provokes fear and anger in her. But after the Beast saves her from wolves, Belle’s reaction, while still energic, becomes of compassion, empathy and zeal. As she spends more time with the Beast, learning to see him as her friend, Belle finally notices that her beautfiull discontentment was rewarded, because she finally found someone to understand her.

And now the moment that everyone was whaiting: My Number One Beauty is...

01º Zdena Studenková as Julie in Juraj Herz’s Panna a Netvor (1978)

Julie is the youngest of the merchant’s three daughters, and also the daughter born of his second wife and greatest love. This makes her the merchant’s favorite daughter, while in turn that favoritism makes her life very sheltered, since her father fears loosing her like he lost her mother. When she takes her father’s place and rides a horse to the ruins that the Beast calls his palace, you get the feel that is not only out of filial duty, but also a desire for freedom that motivates her decision. Arriving at her destiny, she is fascinated by the ruins and the magic that they contain, and gets even more fascinated by the voice of the mysteryous Beast, who unbknowns to Julie, is containing a violent desire to devour her. Slowly, Julie learns that it wasn’t just out of curiosity that she inquired and playfully talked to her host: even without seeing the Beast, Julie is falling in love with Beast, and must decide wheter she accepts this feeling or rejects it and returns to the safety of her family home.

Starting out as passive, but slowly revealing herself to be braver than she ever expected, showing strenght in her vulnerability when learning to find the sublime in the grotesque, Zdena Studenková’s Julie is both an easy to follow audience surrogate and a unique individual character, beautifull in her complexities, and that is why she is my Number One portrayal of Beauty.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Susan Sarandon as Beauty in Faerie Tale Theatre (1984)

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Influential Directors of the Silent Film Era

Upon hearing that I am a fan of silent era film, people will ask if I have a favorite actor or movie from the time period. However, when I am asked about my favorites from other fans of silent film, it tends to involve my favorite director. This is because silent film actors had to over gesticulate and performed in an unrealistic way and could not use their tone or words to convey emotion. The directors also did not have a way to review as they shot and would have to use editing skills and strategic cover shots to make sure that everything was done properly and come out the way they imagined it. It was up to the director to be creative and they were forced to be innovative and create ways to convey their vision. Luckily for many average or poor directors of the time, audiences were easily impressed. However, today's more demanding and sophisticated audiences can look back at some of the genius behind the films of silent era Hollywood.

Alice Guy-Blache: Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913) and The Fairy of the Cabbages (1896)

Art director of the film studio The Solax Company, the largest pre-Hollywood movie studio, and camera operator for the France based Gaumont Studio headed up by Louis Lemiere, this woman was a director before any kind of gender expectations were even established. She was a pioneer of the use of audio recordings in conjunction with images and the first filmmaker to systematically develop narrative filming. Guy-Blanche didn't just record an image but used editing and juxtaposition to reveal a story behind the moving pictures. In 1914, when Hollywood studios hired almost exclusively upper class white men as directors, she famously said that there was nothing involved in the staging of a movie that a woman could not do just as easily as a man.

Charlie Chaplin: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1923), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940)

It is unfortunate that many people today think of Chaplin as silly or for screwball comedy when, in fact, he was a great satirist of the time. He created his comedy through the eyes of the lower economic class that suffered indignities over which they had no control. He traversed the world as his "Tramp" character who found his fortune by being amiable and lucky. The idea that a good attitude and a turn of luck could result in happiness was all that many Americans had during the World Wars and the Great Depression. He played the part of the sad clown and he was eventually kicked out of the country for poking fun at American society. Today he is beloved for his work, but he was more infamous than famous during a large part of his life.

Buster Keaton: Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), and The Cameraman (1928).

That man that performed the most dangerous of stunts with a deadpan expression, Buster Keaton was a great actor, athlete, stuntman, writer, producer, and director. It is amazing that you could get so much emotion out of a silent actor who does not emote, but Keaton managed to do it. He was also never afraid to go big, often putting his own well being at risk to capture a good shot. Not as well known for his cinematography or editing as many of the other directors of the time, he instead captured performances that were amazing no matter how they were filmed. Famous stunts include the side of a house falling down around him, standing on the front of a moving train, sitting on the side rail of a moving train, and grabbing on to a speeding car with one hand to hitch a ride. If you like films by Jackie Chan, know that he models his films after the work of Buster Keaton: high action and high comedy.

Cecil B. Demille: The Cheat (1915), Male and Female (1919), and The Ten Commandments (1923)

Known as the father of the Hollywood motion picture industry, Demille was the first director to make a real box office hit. He is likely best known for making The Ten Commandments in 1923 and then remaking it again in 1956. If not that, he was also known for his scandalous dramas that depicted women in the nude. This was pre-Code silent film so the rules about what could be shown had not been established. Demille made 30 large production successful films in the silent era and was the most famous director of the time which gave him a lot of freedom. His trademarks were Roman orgies, battles with large wild animals, and large bath scenes. His films are not what most modern film watchers think of when they are considering silent films. That famous quote from the movie Sunset Boulevard in 1950 in which the fading silent actress says "All right, Mr. Demille. I'm ready for my close-up," is referring to this director.

D.W. Griffith: Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916)

Griffith started making films in 1908 and put out just about everything that he recorded. He made 482 films between 1908 and 1914, although most of these were shorts. His most famous film today is absolutely Birth of a Nation and it is one of the most outlandishly racist films of the time. The depiction of black Americans as evil and the Klu Klux Klan as heroes who are protecting the nation didn't even really go over well at that time. Some believe that his follow up the next year called Intolerance was an apology, but the film actually addresses religious and class intolerance and avoids the topic of racism. At the time, Griffith films were known for the massive sets and casts of thousands of extras, but today he is known for his racist social commentary.

Sergei Eisenstein: Battleship Potemkin (1925)

This eccentric Russian director was a pioneer of film theory and the use of montage to show the passage of time. His reputation at the time would probably be similar to Tim Burton or maybe David Lynch. He had a very specific strange style that made his films different from any others. The film Battleship Potemkin is considered to be one of the best movies of all time as rated by Sight and Sound, and generally considered as a great experimental film that found fame in Hollywood as well as Russia.

F.W. Murnau: Nosferatu (1922), Faust (1926), and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

I think that most people would know the bald-headed long-nailed vampire Nosferatu that was a silent era phenomena. It was so iconic that the German film studio that produced the movie was sued by the estate of Bram Stoker and had to close. Faust was his last big budget German film and has an iconic shot of the demon Mephisto raining plague down on a town that was the inspiration for the Demon Mountain in Fantasia (1940). Also, Sunrise is considered one of the best movies of all time by the AFI and by Sight and Sound as well as my favorite silent film. Fun facts: 1) more of Murnau's films have been lost then are still watchable and 2) he died in a car wreck at only 40 when he hired a car to drive up the California coast and the driver was only 14.

Erich von Stroheim: Greed (1924)

Maker of very strange German Expressionist films, Stroheim films are often listed as Horror or Mystery even though he considered himself a dramatic film maker. His most famous movie Greed was supposed to be amazing with an 8 hour run time but it was cut drastically to the point that it makes no sense and was both critically and publicly panned when an extremely abridged version was released in the U.S. Over half the film was lost and a complete version no longer exists. Besides this film, Stroheim was even better known for being the butler in the film Sunset Boulevard as a former director who retired to be with an aging silent film star. He also made a movie called Between Two Women (1937) that told the story of a female burn victim that was inspired by the story of his wife being burned in an explosion in a shop on the actual Sunset Boulevard.

Victor Fleming: The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone With the Wind (1939)

Although not known for his silent films, Fleming did get his start during the silent era. He was a cinematographer for D.W. Griffith and then Fleming directed his first film in 1919. Most of his silent films were swashbuckling action movies with Douglas Fairbanks or formulaic westerns. He is the only director to have two films on the AFI top 10 and they happened to have come out the same year.

Hal Roach: Lonesome Luke films starring Harold Lloyd, Our Gang shorts, Laurel and Hardy shorts, and Of Mice and Men (1939)

It is not really fair to put Hal Roach in the silent era directors because he was influential at the time but he had a 75 year career. He was a producer and film studio head and even had a studio named after himself. His biggest contribution to the silent era was his production of Harold Lloyd short comedies and he continued to produce films in the early talkies including Laurel and Hardy shorts, Our Gang shorts, and Wil Rogers films. Roach was the inspiration for the film Sullivan's Travels, in which a famous director who only did frivolous comedies goes out into the world to find inspiration to find a serious drama. Roach did direct a single serious drama, Of Mice and Men, but it came out in 1939 and was buried underneath the works of Victor Fleming. The wealthy cigar smoking studio head that many people think of when they picture a film studio suit is based on this guy. The man would not quit and stayed in the business into his 90s and lived to the ripe old age of 100.

[365days365movies]

Horror October IV: The Wolf Man (1941) - Recap: Part Two

By the way, I love actual wolves, just to be clear.

In that first part, I was talking about man’s historical perception of wolves, so I put them in a necessarily negative light. But, uh, wolves fuggin’ rule, guys. Don’t know if you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting a wolf, but I have. And I love them a lot. Now, would I want to meet one in the wild with all of its friends? Um...no. I enjoy living. But they’re extremely important for the environment, and they’re still in desperate need of conservation and of a better rap.

The reputation that wolves have been assigned in folklore is overwhelmingly negative, and that damaged their real-world numbers as well. While they were competitors for some of the same resources that we gathered in droves, and while they did attack humans relatively frequently in Europe, that wasn’t enough cause for what happened to them.

Frequent hunting and habitat destruction led to the extirpation of the gray wolf in most of Central Europe, and essentially all of Western Europe. The North American populations suffered a similar fate, with their populations suffering from the expansion of agriculture, and with the depletion of prey species like the American bison. Eventually, we’d almost completely extirpated them from the contiguous United States, with hold out populations in national parks and smaller refuges. 

But since the 1970s, conservation efforts worldwide have allowed populations to be on the rebound. They’re being reintroduced in the United States, their populations are spreading back into central Europe, and conservation centers and captive breeding programs in zoos have allowed a robust population that can be (and has been) used to supplement the genetics of wild populations of the species. Plus, even the wolf’s reputation culturally has made a turnaround!

For a while, wolves in media have had some positive representation. Even the Romans had Romulus and Remus, while Rudyard Kipling brought in a pack of Indian wolves (Canis lupus pallipes) to raise Mowgli. The social nature of the wolves has long been associated with our societies, so a kinship has popped up over the centuries. 

Reinterpretation has even changed some of the negative depictions of wolves into, at the very least, neutral depictions. One of my favorite orchestral compositions is Peter and the Wolf, by Sergei Prokofiev. Does that make me a basic classical bitch? Yeah, it doesn, but do I care? No, I don’t because it fucking SLAPS. Anyway, in the (EXCELLENT) 2006 stop motion animated film set to the  composition, the wolf is painted in a purely neutral light. How does it end? WATCH IT. Seriously, watch this excellent short film RIGHT HERE. It’s stellar.

And that positive reinterpretation isn’t limited to wolves, surprisingly. Werewolves have also been getting a positive rap in recent films! Far be it from me to praise the Twilight franchise, but...I mean, yeah, werewolves are in it, and they aren’t bloodthirsty monsters. I mean, yeah, Jacob literally falls in love WITH A FUCKING BABY, and that’s goddamn disgusting, but whatever. But if I’m gonna praise positive representation of werewolves, well, fuck Twilight, frankly.

Wolfwalkers, based on the actual legend of the Werewolves of Ossory, is genuinely one of my favorite movies from 2020. I only watched it this year for the first time, but I’m 100% watching it again. It’s gorgeous, it’s touching, it’s a Cartoon Saloon movie, and it’s a look at a real and classical version of the werewolf. If you haven’t seen this movie, you absolutely need to watch it. And if you HAVE seen it, and want to know my full thoughts, check out my recap and review on it (Part One | Part Two | Review)!

Anyway, enough about that. Just wanted to inject a little positivity into talking about wolves (and werewolves). I genuinely love wolves, and I refuse to be a part of promoting negative stereotypes about them or any other animals. Except grey squirrels. They’re absolute DICKS.

YEAH YOU FUCKIN’ MOOCH STOPEATINGMYBIRDSEED

...Check out Part One if you want to!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap: Part Two

So, Larry’s a werewolf now. He immediately kills a gravedigger, like you do, and howls to let people know they’re fucked. The police realize that it’s a wolf that’s killed them, and Larry wakes up the next morning not understanding what’s happened. He asks his seven-years-older father what this whole werewolf thing is about, despite the fact that Maleva JUST TOLD HIM that shit.

Larry’s clearly a little freaked about a few things, and he doesn’t hide it well. They go to church, where Jenny’s mom and the local gossip mill spread rumors about the wolf, and about Larry. However, he’s unable to enter the church fully, and leaves prematurely. Colonel Montford, with a print from the wolf, decides to send the print to Scotland Yard, proving once and for all that this town composed of 99% AMERICAN PEOPLE is SOMEHOW IN THE UK. Guys...come ON.

The cops decide to set traps, as Larry insists that it’s a WEREwolf they’re hunting. The doctor thinks he’s nuts, and nobody pays attention. And sure enough, he gets caught in a bear trap. He’s found by Maleva, who says a prayer over him that dispels the werewolf curse temporarily. He’s freed from the trap, and he escapes through the wood, telling the nearby cops that he’s also hunting for the wolf.

Larry’s now certain that he’s a werewolf, but instead of taking the fuck off FOREVER, he immediately goes to Gwen to tell her that she’s leaving forever. He sees a pentagram on her hand, meaning that she will be his next victim, just as Bela saw it on Jenny’s hand. He takes off, then runs to his father, who obviously believes none of this shit. He believes that Maleva’s filled his head with nonsense, and is driving him mad. However, in order to prevent his son from going to the cops, he ties him to a chair, for his own good, and so he can see that nothing will happen.

Sir John heads out to join in the hunt, where he is met by Maleva. He tries to tell her off, only to hurry back to the stand when he hears gunshots, worried that the werewolf is in fact his poor son. And indeed, Larry’s escaped the hunters, now in the form of a werewolf. Unfortunately, Gwen’s ALSO in the woods looking for him, and Larry quickly finds her.

The Wolf Man attacks Gwen, but Sir John catches up, beating him to death with Larry’s silver cane. And as the werewolf dies, Maleva catches up and says the prayer that dulls the curse, causing him to turn back into human Larry. Gwen lives in the end, and Larry lies dead at Sir John’s hands. And with that...you guessed it.

These sudden endings, man. See you in the Review!

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Movie Review | They Fought for Their Motherland (Bondarchuk, 1975)

For a few minutes there, They Fought for Their Motherland had me fooled that it would be a conventional war movie. Consider the first battle scene, marked by close-ups of its Russian heroes as they face an oncoming advance of German tanks and infantry. The cutting pattern appears deceptively normal, as do the shot choices. But it isn't long before the mask is lifted, and we're hit with a shot of a windmill on fire that looks like something out of a nightmare. At this point, it should sink in that this is directed by Sergey Bondarchuk, whose War and Peace was characterized by a similar stylistic abandon that lent a dreamy, almost psychedelic flavour to its epic battle scenes. (This is Sergeant York's brain on drugs.) I imagine hallucinogens were a big no-no in the Soviet Union, but perhaps viewers in other circumstances might find them appropriate accompaniment to the proceedings. I watched this sober as I do most things, because the PSAs worked too well on me.

This story of a Russian platoon defending against the advancing German offensive is apparently based on a novel (which I have not read), but plays like a near plotless progression of battle scenes, punctuated by Bondarchuk's off-kilter stylistic flourishes and scenes of camaraderie during what little downtime they have. The most immediate contrast this has with War and Peace and Waterloo is the size of the production and the aspect ratio. While I wouldn't call this a small-scale production, it doesn't have the mind boggling grandeur of the other two, particularly War and Peace, which felt like it had the full resources of the Soviet state at its disposal. In contrast, this feels more intimate, helped by the heavier reliance on close-ups, and as a result almost evokes the heroes' wartime experience as an abstracted feeling. The full frame aspect ratio, rather than the scope compositions of the earlier movies, lends itself well to this, but the movie also finds ways to use the height of the ratio to play with the scale, emphasizing the heroes' smallness with the amount of sky in the frame, or showing flames and smoke rising to a terrifying height. Like those earlier movies, this uses the landscape as an evolving compositional element, like a shot where a series of explosions rapidly approaches the camera brings to mind a similar image in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk. And there's a certain horrible poetry captured in moments like one where a German tank razes a burning farmhouse, or a shot of the Russian army retreating that looks like an image straight from hell, pitch black with the ground on fire.

Where the movie suffers is with its characters. War and Peace benefited from the source material, but also captured a sense of three distinct characters being caught in a historical moment, providing us with a clear vantage point to the proceedings. The heroes here are seen more as a collective rather than individuals, which makes sense for the movie's propagandistic aims but makes for less successful drama. As someone not super well versed in Soviet cinema, I will concede that I didn't share the same appreciation for its stars that the original audience may have, but despite Bondarchuk and his War and Peace co-star Vyacheslav Tikhonov playing roles, the only character I found had much personality was the one played by Vasiliy Shukshin, who when not killing Germans to defend his homeland spends his downtime trying to get with, uh, big boned women. I didn't find the scenes of camaraderie between the soldiers uninvolving (and the humour was bawdier than I expected), but despite playing one of the characters, I never got the sense Bondarchuk identified with them very much (certainly less so than the protagonists of those earlier movies). And because the final stretch is mostly this stuff and not so much warfare, I thought it didn't end on the best note, but still found this quite worthwhile for its thrilling and disarmingly weird battle scenes.

[earthdeep]

so. watched yugioh arc-v over the past few months. and I have some Thoughts. some Thoughts that got so out of hand that they now take up a word document 4000 words long.  they have been shoved under this nice cut for safekeeping. click through if u want 4000 words of Thoughts on that trainwreck of a show, I guess. if u have also suffered arc-v u may be entitled to commiseration.

Notes on Arc-V as of episode 99 (end of Synchro arc)

The all encompassing theme for this arc is ~being less than the sum of its parts~ as far as I’m concerned. There’s some excellent moments in here! Out in the outside world, I enjoyed Sora’s reentry into the friend group, along with Larya’s development (though would someone please give that boy a hug and give him something to do that doesn’t involve being a child soldier?) and within duels you had stuff like Kurosaki’s duel with Dennis which…  Man, as insulting as Dennis’ original entrance was, I appreciate his style a lot.  The sillier moments in this arc were definitely hit or miss (I’m infinitely glad Hugo got zapped away for plot purposes, because I soured on his antics so fast and now only feel rage at his presence) but the random duel monster dancing sections got me pretty much every time.  The fact that other characters in the scene would actually acknowledge how bizarre that is to experience is a nice way of grounding plot points that… Okay.  I can’t hold it back.  Let’s talk about beef.

So.  Revolution as a plot point.  Bold choice.  Easy to fuck up.  Especially if you don’t provide enough time to explain the context.  Which… Arc-V definitively does not do.  Its biggest blessing and also curse, the show’s expansive cast and plot tapestry strikes here severely. We are introduced immediately upon entering the dimension to a deeply classist society.  The 1% live up in the sky in luxury, while down below the 99% are drenched in poverty and menaced by the cops. A Neo Domino where Satellite was never around to become a scapegoat and general deprivation-sink.  Add into that a carefully curated culture that encourages the poor to blame themselves for their economic situation, along with the police force all being literally mind controlled.  Time to chuck in the protagonists and the threat of interdimensional war, and surely we’ve got something good cooking!

Cue a lot of exceedingly poor decisions.  We have locked the council in a room with Reiji, where they will now proceed to talk at each other without doing anything, taking up valuable screen time.  All of the competitors have been locked in their own hotel rooms, unable to communicate with each other and making character development significantly less economical to do.  Sergey’s first deck is that.

Sorry, that last one wasn’t on the same level as the others.  I just sometimes remember that duel and have to deal with my conflicting feelings over what I watched all over again.

But anyway, due to how split up the cast are at pretty much all times, it means they don’t have much to react to until they’re centre stage in a duel and have to rush through where they are as characters all at once.  And, because I actually know to tie a topic back to a previous point, I’m going to use Shinji as a case study, because I think he got a particularly rough go at this.

Despite being the leading force of a city-wide uprising, Shinji gets… maybe the same level of screen time as Sawatari.  He turns up at Crow’s house to hand out candy and immediately leaves, then turns up again just in time to get arrested and stand around in the background of the jailbreak.  Surprise, that’s all we get from him until his duel against Tsukikage.  He is now calling loudly for revolution, pretty much on his own because his opponent has absolutely nothing to do with this struggle!  Then off he goes back into his room until his next duel.  I guess no one in the fascist police state wanted to chat with him about any of that? Or maybe the writers decided that would be too interesting.  Next duel, he inevitably loses to Yuya, accuses him of being a Tops dog in a plot thread that would be fun if it lasted a bit longer to be honest, then gets chucked into the basement until revolution time. Important to note at this point is that Shinji hasn’t actually been involved in anything terrible we’ve seen happen as a result of the Tops/Commons system.  Largely because we’ve barely seen it in action!  There’s been the basic explanation of an inequality of resources, Hugo and Yuzu got chased out of a gated community, and there’s that genuinely chilling moment of the crowd being totally accepting of the “losers get forced labour as punishment” thing.  We haven’t had the time to really delve into the divide between the classes or the sense of poverty beyond surface level “kids stealing food” stuff, mostly because we don’t spend enough time in either community!  

Hell, we don’t even have a sympathetic face to represent Tops; the best we have is a random abandoned child in an alleyway that Crow spots with his magical dad senses! Who are these people?!  Is there anyone part of that level of society who does more than sit around drinking champagne and watching duels?!  Do the cops’ families ever notice that their loved ones are acting weird and/or are missing large chunks of their memory when they come home at the end of the day?!  Don’t show the audience a picture of a crying child and expect them to automatically side with the fuckers in evening dress around them!

And to an extent, I get why the details of this weren’t hashed out properly.  Not just because of time constraints, but because talking about wealth inequality and its knock-on effects is inherently political, even in a watered down scifi setting.  You’re not going to be allowed to air a shounen anime that shows an armed rebellion against economic injustice working out. You have no choice but to push the party line that we if we just reach out and hold hands with our oppressors, everything will be okay.  So long as we’re smiling, we don’t need to fight!

The view the dictatorial villain is explicitly using as a means to control the population of City.

I’ve wanted to talk about Roget properly since fairly on in his appearance, because I find him an unusually engaging villain (at least for a Yugioh show).  Manipulative and tactical, without being comically over-prepared.  He starts with a cool exterior and slowly chips away into panic and desperation as things go wrong.  And he completely cracks open the basis of Yuya’s shtick.  Using spectacle to keep eyes where he wants them?  Keeping order and acquiring power through pacification?  It’s an excellent marrying of soft power and the nevertheless fascist ideals he would have absorbed from his background.

This was the plot thread I wanted the show to play with most, out of all the dead ends it’s come out with thus far.  Yuya being confronted with the idea that entertainment can be actively harmful when used to distract from other, more serious problems.  There’s a war at City’s doorstep!  Multiple, if you count the Commons uprising!  But he remains stubborn that he was right all along, comes up with an entirely different conclusion that he isn’t just his father’s successor, but stands on the shoulders of all the people in his life – nice lesson by the way, did Yusei break into the writer’s room between episodes? – and then thankfully the members of the cast who know what the fuck they’re doing go ahead and take down Roget’s mind control set up.  Thank you, competent members of the team.  Turns out the way to take out a military dictator who’s just declared martial law is to… you know, go do that instead of faffing around with a show.

But hey, now the cops have their brains back so they’re all buddy-buddy with the Commons, the Tops are still sitting around with their champagne glasses, the King who’s been an important symbol of unity has been dethroned by this random outsider, the Administrative Council have just disbanded themselves with no clear replacement, and-

Wait we’re leaving now?  Uh, I think we missed something?  I mean sure Roget’s been got, but no one else in the city knows that!  Why is everyone cheering like they’ve achieved something?!  Shinji? What happened to that fight with Crow you were having during your last speaking role?  And who the fuck’s in charge now?!  Guys, you have some seriously complex transit systems going on; you can’t just go straight into full anarchy!  Hello? Hello?!  Hello?!

As of episode 112 (end of XYZ arc???):

Hey, uh, what?  Why is this arc over already?  Did someone drop the script in a puddle and accidentally destroy the entire middle of the story?

No, seriously, how do I even talk about this?!  We set up the situation in Heartland, fought Kaito for a bit, found the Fusion soldiers and then just… won all of them over instantly, I guess.  It genuinely seemed like the Tyler sisters and Edo were going to have a proper crisis of faith moment and then turn face during their next showdown with the protag team, but then they just went ahead and did it immediately.  And then Kaito decided to help immediately.  There was no conflict here!  Just duels!  Also Kurosaki fell over at some point and can’t get up and who even knows what that’s about.

But other than that, Yuya remains a naive, inconsiderate brat.  Ute threatened to have an interesting dynamic with popping in to possess him more, but ultimately stepped back again.  The action duels have gotten unbelievably stale, largely thanks to the same boring little field being used over and over again.

On the plus side, the parts of this arc where we didn’t focus on this arc and instead popped off to see what the Fusion dimension was up to were nice!  Asuka has matured into a lesbian icon, and I appreciate that.  That 5-on-1 duel with Joeri where all the runaways’ decks were based off of Judai’s friends’ was very cool.  Joeri’s reaction to the Ojamas is the same that I wish upon my opponents when I play an Ojama deck on Duel Links.

Hope Yuya arriving onstage won’t destroy everything good about it, but there’s like 36 episodes left and I do not have hope.

As of episode 148 (THE END.)

Oh no, time and space are collapsing in on themselves!  Wait, no, that’s just the plot.

SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST WATCH?!  THAT ENDING WAS A TOTAL TRAINWRECK!

Ahem.  Calm.  Let’s just stop laughing/crying and go through this piece by agonising piece.

So.  Yugioh is not exactly known for it’s well executed final seasons.  They tend to be rushed and truncated and whatever else so that the next series can start up and sell new cards.  But by god, ARC-V hits a whole new level.  The pace was all over the damn place, with rapid jumps of logic about important overarching plot points combined with unnecessary, drawn out duels between characters who have no prior history.  And maybe that last part could have been avoided better if the XYZ arc had like.  Existed.  You know, getting Edo to meet Hugo before having to duel him down from going full Z-ARC?  Showing Kaito and Kurosaki actually interacting before moving on to the Fusion dimension and all that stuff?  Giving some background to who the hell Ruri was as a person rather than a name?

Christ, and that can just lead neatly on to the misogyny that bleeds into every rotting crevice of this final arc.  I… keep coming up short on words to describe my feelings on it.  Like, I’d heard it was bad, and Yuzu got totally shafted, but I guess I kinda expected the standard level of Yugioh misogyny.  You know, where the female characters are introduced well but get suspiciously less time to shine as the story progresses, but still hang around as part of the supporting cast?

HA.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.  HOW DO YOU FUCK UP WORSE THAN GX?!  YOU EVEN FUCKED UP WITH ASUKA AGAIN.  YOU GAVE HER LIKE TWO DUELS BEFORE CARDING HER.  WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK WANTED THIS?!

Seriously, Crow uncarded himself!  What, did he land in a convenient fridge after Sawatari lost him?  God knows ARC-V must have plenty of the bloody things lying around!

Okay.  Calm again.  Deep breaths.

Other than being infuriating, the insistence that the girls aren’t allowed to do anything themselves really gets in the way of tension.  Like oh, a boy’s started up a duel with a girl?  Guess we know who’ll win this one, no matter how bullshit.  And god there’s so much bullshit to keep the sexism in play.  Worst offender probably has to go to the duel between Yuya and like, Girls: Parasite Edition.  If he had outright lost the duel due to the parasite getting into his brain, the plot would only have flowed more smoothly; it’s not like it’d been set up as a shadow game that would auto-kill him for losing!  But no, we gotta cheapen the stakes of the duel and demean these girls further, all in one fell swoop!

...I’m getting pissed again, ain’t I.  Breathing.

You want a funny anecdote?  The symbolism of Ray’s cards threw me off while I was watching, because of the words used: flower, bird, wind, moon.  See, this is a Japanese phrase that kinda refers like, beautiful scenery, or the beauty of nature.  I actually had to look that up though, because I had only ever heard a similar but different phrase: wind, flower, snow, moon.  Which instead references the fleeting beauty of the seasons, and the derived meaning of beautiful, pompous poetry that actually says nothing.  I prefer my version.  Petition to change Ruri’s leitmotif to snow,  since the writers clearly have absolutely no qualms about retroactively changing a main character’s entire theme to fit into whatever bollocks they just came up with, seriously Yuzu’s imagery was music based, not flowers, why the fuck would you-

Sorry.  I got mad again.  I guess I can try sidestepping into laughing at the disaster of a human that is Leo Akaba.  A man who has not made a single correct or logical decision in his life.  Nope, not even one.

So, you’ve just remembered a weird past life where you watched your beloved daughter died defeating a professional athlete whose desire to please other people led to him trying to destroy the world (and I guess we’ll have to circle back to that little detail later).  After discovering interdimensional travel you hop off elsewhere (apparently missing the Ray and Z-ARC reincarnations right under your nose – presumably Yusyo didn’t care enough about his son to have even a single picture on his phone to show his friend) and find both part one of four of your fragmented daughter’s soul and that of the villain she died defeating.  Now, you would quite like to put your daughter back together, but if you accidentally put the other guy together in the process, he’ll go right back to destroying the world!  So, what is your next move?  Do you:

1) Quietly murder the Z-ARC child while he’s young and vulnerable so he never gets a chance to merge with the rest of himself.  Sure, child murder is frowned upon, but compared to world destruction it’s nothing.  Besides, this child has particularly bad vibes. You are now free to travel the dimensions, eliminating further Z-ARC fragments and collecting Ray ones until you can either put your old daughter back together or just accept her death and continue living with your four new daughters.

2) Attempt to remove the threat of Z-ARC peacefully.  As someone who witnessed his ascent to villainy, you are aware of his motivations.  But right now, he is stuck as a bunch of impressionable children from varying backgrounds.  You dedicate yourself to travelling the dimensions to teach these boys the importance of self-image, and not basing your self worth on what other people think of you.  Just in case, you try to encourage them towards hobbies that don’t have the opportunity to turn into a bloodsport.  And hey, on the way you can even collect those pieces of your daughter you refuse to assign personhood to!  Win win!

3) Train up the one piece of Z-ARC you have into a sadistic child soldier and send him out across the dimensions to hunt down the pieces of your daughter.  You don’t bother monitoring him to make sure he doesn’t bump into any other Z-ARC fragments; you’re far too busy keeping your daughter fragments locked up where they can’t help out in tracking themselves down, after all!  For some reason you also decide the best way of locating the people you need is to wage interdimensional war and let your army go nuts in not-technically-killing everyone in sight.  The chaos of war is a well known tool that makes finding people just so much easier.  edit: oh my god I forgot about powering the ARC-V with the carded victims. just completely memory-holed that plot point. ok make sure u have ur technology all be powered by souls, I’m sure that’s vitally important.

Honestly, I can’t even be mad at Leo.  I’ve transcended in my opinion of him.  No longer can I feel emotion towards him: not anger, nor pity, nor amusement.  He is simply here.  I miss Roget…

Actually, no, there is one more thing I find funny.  Fucker really gave all his kids matching names, huh? Just all rei- whatever.  Oh my god, and on that note, a random titbit about the subs on CrunchyRoll.  After Layra’s reincarnation as a baby in the last bit (will not be mad, will not be mad, WILL NOT BE MAD) the subs decided to switch to she pronouns instead of he?  Like, reincarnation transed this baby’s gender.  Good for her, I guess.  Real talk, I’m guessing what happened was just a lack of communication on the subbing team, because Layra isn’t referred to in gender terms since she’s busy being a literal infant, and also can’t speak to use gendered first person terms.  Absolutely wild thing to drop less than ten episodes before the end, but okay.

That said, all of those last eight episodes was.  A lot.  Here’s the thing.  I like that trope where during the finale of a time loop based story we get a fakeout back to the beginning of the story, until the characters realise they’ve begun to loop and have to break out and fix it for good this time.  Or when a character tries to sacrifice themself to break the loop only for a new loop to happen that leads to the same result-

That’s going to be incomprehensible if you aren’t a fan of time loop stuff.  Anyway, going in I thought it was going to be that sort of thing and was actually excited to see it play out.  What can I say, I’m an optimist.  But then we just-  I’m sorry, words are starting to fail me again.  We got a glorified recap with several members of the cast who had fallen to the wayside a bit, using the excuse that Yuya still needs to beat them to go pro?  Which he still wants?  Also, gotta fight Jack again for, um, reasons.  Listen, ARC-V, I understand Jack is a better Yugioh rival than Reiji will ever be, but he’s already had his final battle during the Z-ARC thing!  Oh well, at least I got to see Dennis again.  Love that funky little theatre kid who is basically just The Cooler Yuya.  But yes, by duelling well and going pro Yuya will now make Layra smile which will make Z-ARC Not Evil Anymore and bring back Yuzu because…  Listen we really need to hurry this whole thing up so we can move what little budget we have left into VRAINS production.  It’s fine, put the emotional crux over the end credits and end the episode before anyone can process it’s over.  Fuck closure.

Anyway, it’s time to get back to imagining a satisfying ending to this shitshow.  First off, you clearly did not have time to do that epilogue properly.  Ditch it. The dimensions are going to unite in the end regardless, so we can just cut straight to dealing with that fact as a nice wind down after the battle between Ray and Z-ARC is over.

Now, as for that final battle.  What we’ve set up here is a doomed cycle of reincarnation.  Ray takes out Z-ARC, dimensions split, dimensions reunite, rinse and repeat. You need to actively break the cycle to defeat Z-ARC.  Luckily, we know enough about the guy to work out what went wrong, and have had the entire Synchro arc to explore the audience-performer relationship.  Not necessarily well, but it’s there. There’s themes to be had.  So, examine them.  Yuya used his power as an entertainer to change the hearts of City’s people, leading them into a new era of peace and harmony.  There are four entire major characters inside Z-ARC, so let them hold onto their own lived experiences.  Let them talk to each other in there rather than just ritualistically chanting.  They know the parts of Ray now, rather than the stranger she was when they first fought.  (Side note: just go ahead and resurrect Ray rather than the stuff with Layra.) Z-ARC becoming a destroyer of worlds doesn’t need to be inevitable. None of this needs to be inevitable!  He has the power to make people smile on his terms!  If he’s honest, he doesn’t really want any of this.  Well, most of him anyway.  Who knows what’s going on with Joeri.  Ray once more activates her final four cards, both of them expecting to be wiped out.  But then again, it’s different this time.  Their fates aren’t set in stone. Thanks to a series of pendulum effects, the duel ends in a draw, both duelists collapsing to the ground as the pandemonium of the dimensions coalescing around them heightens.  For a moment, there is despair.  Was this… worse?  Have they failed?  But then it stabilises.  Ray and Z-ARC open their eyes, all at once themselves, and their other selves.  Two multifaceted individuals free to choose their own fates, because even one person can grow into so many more. We see everyone alive, rebuilding the world and getting along.  If even Z-ARC can come around and see sense, there’s hope for everyone, right?  And if we have time, we can have a final duel between Yuya and his dad to showcase him officially surpassing him and forging his own path.  That of pendulum summoning.

Also Leo goes to jail for dad crimes I guess.  Fuck that guy.  Actually, no, don’t, he might end up reproducing again and fuck knows he should not have access to children.

Final Thoughts.

Yugioh ARC-V is not a good show.  I knew that going in.  That’s like, the number one thing you hear about it right?  That it went massively downhill in the second half? But I still wasn’t quite prepared for just how true that was.  I genuinely wouldn’t have made it through if I wasn’t actively riffing on it as I went.  God knows what my parents must think if they heard me doing that out loud.  “Where the fuck is Yuzu?!” is not an easily explained chant.  But no, I spent a lot of the runtime rewriting the show in my head in real time, because so many of the narrative problems are just so fucking obvious to anyone who’s written basically anything before.

And underpinning it all is the scope the writing team attempted.  They weren’t ready to handle a sprawling multiverse, and especially not such a huge cast.  This is a story of a thousand characters forced to share a dozen relationships.

And listen, I know it’s hard to juggle so many motives and factions.  When I write more complex character based drama, I need to pull out a pen and paper and map it out a few times at different points chronologically.  But I expect a licensed anime to be able to do that halfway competently!  And they just didn’t!  Even by Yugioh standards!

I suspect most of this show will have fallen out of my head by the end of the month.  The settings it introduced don’t interest me, and I struggle to enjoy its original characters beyond a surface level.  Hell, the only not-death that affected me was Dennis’, and I’m very aware that that comes from it hitting some very specific triggers of mine.  I guess I made myself a little emotional while reimagining the Z-ARC fight up there, suggesting I care somewhat for the Yu-boys and girls.  The latter in a very ‘Justice For X’ kinda way.

Oh well.  At least it’s over now.