#moral orel meta

[maounteighn]

Overanalising Moral Orel: Clay, Bloberta and the Colour Theory

p.1 Clay

Interesting thing about visuals in Moral Orel for Clay and Bloberta is that in Help, upon the first meeting, Bloberta wears red and Clay wears blue – in colour theory those are split-complementary colours, the are not exactly opposites, so the don't contrast of clash against each other.

Clay's light blue is cooler, more purple-ish, and provides soothing visual effect to Bloberta's bright warm red-orange.

In design, the cool colors can help soften the intensity of the red, creating a balanced and visually striking composition. In this moment they are more in harmony than they will ever be.

By the end of Help, they are married and utterly unhappy. While Bloberta sticks to her reds even after marriage, Clay moves to greens. The are truly complementary now, but also absolute opposites.

In visual perception there's also such phenomenon as impossible colours. These are the colours that are on the different wave length and thus cannot be mixed during the initial perception. And look who's on the list:

So, visually Clay and Bloberta stand in stark contrast and by no means are mixable. As if it's on purpose. You see, it's notable how Bloberta stuck to her colour identity through the series, while Clay shifts all around the place. It's green > light blue > green/brown. As if he changes his personality on purpose to be farther and opposite to Bloberta.

We know he has a crappy sense of Self, but it is also all over the place, how he creates his Identity based on who is near, who is wanted and who's not. In private environment he tries to distinct himself from Bloberta as far as possible. It's to spite her, to show her how much he doesn't want to be tied to her, but mainly it's for him – a way of protection and masking for his Self. His identity is of Bloberta's opposite.

There's also a narrative meaning for Clay's green. It's immaturity, childishness. He wore green in Passing, he started off in green. A short period we see him in blue is rare moments of relative wellness. He is starting to come to his own meaning, living by himself and for himself. He was also trying to distinctly set himself in this world, establishing a particular colour identity. Possibly, if he'd never married Bloberta, there would've been something different in his style maybe darker blue. Light colour and also his appearance and demeanor (a stray curl) is also symbolic of his remaining innocent and naïvity.

Once he goes back to greens, it also feels like he makes a huge step back from his initial route. From there on he either stays in place and doesn't grow as a person or spirals into something worse.

He also adopts brown in his clothes. To work, to church, when they have guests or in winter – he wears brown suit or coat. It's a formalwear, there's nothing strange about it, but interestingly, it's his wear for an outer world. It's neutral, uncharacteristic, a Persona he needs to show to the community to give off the impression of competence and respectability. Bloberta, on the other hand, again keeps her red. They look very homogeneous together in this composition.

Clay's brown is actually a darker, less saturated hue of red. Position wise, they are the same, analogous here. It's also a part of the Persona – unity of husband and wife. They don't clash visually, quite opposite – the one is an extension to another. Exactly what the society expects from a nuclear family unit. When they are positioned like this, they also get along sometimes, they are less focused on getting on each others nerves and more on presenting to the community, so they are able to put personal attitudes aside and actually chill.

The complete opposite is Clay's Study. Here, he's alone. It's and established power fantasy for him, a place of delusion and unreality. It's everything he longs to be but is not. In his study he wear a deep dark-red dressing gown. In this environment we usually see his truest self – his intentions, his attitudes, his feelings etc. Red as a personal colour and as a scene undertone sets the impression of power. But the truth is – he never has it. All the disasters of his behaviour, that are set in real scenarios are carried out by his real Personas – in green or brown. What's hidden – is in red.

It follows him even where he tries to conceal it. Bar scenes, hunting trip spiral scene, Danielle's flat scene – he's supposed to be a Persona, but the red shadows are there outing what he wants to hide.

(Upd: i forgot that Passing, up to Angelas death, is also with red undertone. For Clay red is a colour that signifies disaster and unhappiness. Red is everywhere where he is about to act out, prompted by his misery. It's like and angry sorrow, that follows him. It's such a cruel joke that he even married a woman who is in red.)

Red is a colour of his ideal self but also of his self-destruction. It notable for the way those two meanings always go hand-in-hand. Even in his ideal fantasy he doesn't allow himself to achieve happiness. Red is a colour of two forces that tear him apart and send him into a spiral over the counter of the series.

But Clay's red, unlike Bloberta's, is also unstable and irregular. It's notable how all his colours are on the surface level, its a piece of clothing that is put on something. Green cardigan – a mask for Bloberta, red dressing gown – ideal self for himself, brown jacket or coat – a mask for the community. It's all a wrap for his real self, that it too raw and painful to show to the world. Underneath his colours is white – blank and reflective. It's certainly reflects Clay's shallowness – underneath all that colour is nothing, white, blank space that is occasionally filled with something to fit a the specific situation. White is his absence sense of self. White is his actual subconsciousness. Only time he wears white is to bed. And in his sleep is also the only time when his actual suppressed self resurfaces foe just a bit, for us to see.

What we were able to read through his colours themes is that he is a man with a damaged sense of Self and a fake personality, that is never authentic to his true self. It leaves him feeling vulnerable and exposed so he reacts with anger and anatgonism to protect his core. His weak sense of self leaves his susceptible to many kinds of influence – his initial reaction is to confirm, even if he'll resent it in the end. He always adopts a personality according to the relationship of situation he is in.

So Listen, maybe the suit is just blue or maybe no, maybe it actually represents something. This whole thing can be all bs. I also understand the character design process and how main characters need to be recognisable. We are overanalising shit here, sir.

Next's Bloberta.

p.2

[fiapple]

Irt my tags on that last post, though, I think the major failing of the "shattered innocence" reading of the Nature duology is moreso when it comes to later episodes like Help & Passing than its existence as a vaccumized reading of the duology itself. The main reason for this is that it fails to acknowledge that Orel isn't just being confronted with the fact that he's been abused- he's being confronted with the fact that it's cyclical, & with the fact that the continuation that cycle is a choice that is made by people, not by God. That the way he's being treated not only hurts, but is genuinley, honestly wrong, and not some form of religous suffering meant to better him. And that, to mantain his morality and his personhood, he is going to have to- at least to an extent- remove himself from social convention.

In the episodes Help & Passing, we also see Clay & Bloberta confronted with the cycle of abuse- however neither of the two is able to acknowledge it for what it is. They merely see it as painful, some sort of necessary evil that exists as a result of a flaw within themselves, and they seek to escape that pain through each other. They both still see societal expectations as something they must strive to meet. They both see their pain as something to be repressed rather than treated at it's root. They both make the choice, whether it be as a result of selfishness or societal expectation, not to break the mold.

For Clay, this looks like alcoholism, marital neglect, and physical abuse. Drinking and drinking to numb the ache of his constant lonliness, and his fears about his own selfishness making him unloveable, hiding his pain until he physically lashes out just like his father had. He seeks out extramarital relationships rather than communicating with his wife, displaying the way trangressions can often worsen as the cycle moves from generation to generation in an attempt to fill the chasm, but believes the rest of the world is responsible for his feelings of unloveablity rather than his own trauma. In very large part because he refuses to acknowledge it as traumatic- instead bouncing between bitter resentment of his father, and justifying the pain by saying it masculinized him. The smothering nature of his mother, when combined with the absenteeism and later abuse by his father, caused Clay to believe that the world owed him. And, more specifically, that women were meant to fix men while men were to allowed to grovel in misery. Clay's mother constantly bolstered his ego, positoning him as a quasi-deity within his family unit & enforcing the notion that women are to worship men, only for his father's abuse to then drastically influence Clay's self-perception by putting him in a postion where he had to seek out violence to get even a fraction of the attention that was previously spoon-fed to him. All of this created a thick layer of bigotry, which Clay repeatedly perpetuates then justifies over the course of the series, along with an emotional hole that could never be filled without intent. He neglects his wife because confronting his own pain would mean confronting the reality that life isn't easy, that there is no simple truth, and that the women and children- people Christianity positions as his lessers- are just as if not more valuable than he is. But Clay is weak, so instead of facing it he takes down as many of the people around him as he can, so as not to be the only pig in the mud. To Clay, this is nature, this is the way of things.

For Bloberta, this looks like obsessive cleaning, feverent conformism, and a perpetuancy for neglect. She's hardly emotionally invested in her marriage beyond how it impacts her appearance to the rest of the world, something we see somewhat paralleled in her parents relationship- as we're shown they're apt to present themselves as a complete and happy family unit while cutting out one of their daughters entirley- aside from her father's silent discomfort. a fact that positons men as figures to seek comfort from in Bloberta's life, while setting the expectation that they don't actually have to do anything of substance for her. She cleans with vigour as it's the one thing that gives her an illusion of control in a patriarchial society where she was given very little. The pain of being ignored, of only recieving any sort of attention for her relationship to social norms, caused Bloberta to be conformist almost to the point of religous fevor as achieving anything that the heteropatriarchy positions as a goal for women was, after all, the only time Bloberta ever recieved any positive reinforcement. She was taught that the mother of a nuclear family is one that is only emotionally present when she feels is necessary, for the members of the family she deems it necessary for, by her mother's targeted & vitrulent neglect, and she was taught that a flawed marriage leading to two legally bound people being miserable together is fine as long as the family can present a happy face to the rest of the world. And as a result not only does she seek out extramarital affairs in an attempt to reach any semblence of feeling valued, of feeling present, but she also neglects her own family- barely allowing their existence to faze her. For Bloberta, this imitation is not just the way of things but the way of being a person itself. It's godly.

And, to be honest, I think that's a large part of why so many people will defend either Clay or Blorberta & try to shift blame between the two. In missing that what Orel is being confronted with is the cycle of abuse, one is very likely to miss it when his parents are confronted with the same.

[edwardsissyhandsthtdanceslikeabb]

i kinda hate bloberta puppington idk

its really easy to hate clay puppington, his characterization as the show's unflinching central antagonist is as unanimous as it is understandable.

however im probably the only person on earth who doesn't see him as the big bad, in fact i feel for him (shock horror). not in the coquette way or the equally misogynistic contrarian way, but out of genuine surprise that a character who gets universal sympathy and pushback in my hatred for them isn't the center of ppl's ire

— and that is bloberta.

yes ik, clay is responsible for his own actions, and there's only so much excusing that can be done before it overlooks one's agency and the resulting harm inflicted, but the way ppl gloss over exactly why and how clay ended up the way he did baffles me to no end.

clay was an initially decent guy, albeit a bit non-committal and weak-willed, which makes for redpill brainrot when mixed with toxicity, as evidenced by clay himself, but literally the only reason he ended up that way is bc he was saddled with a dependency by someone who gaslit and physically assaulted him into a relationship against his will, which is horrifying, especially in the context of his sexuɑlity. like bloberta isn't even a good mom, and ik that social conditioning + pressure inherently alienates ppl from their societal expectations i.e motherhood, kids... but then i don't understand how and why bloberta is characterized as this woeful damsel archetype when she's barely redeemable and merely overshadowed by someone more overtly troubled. dare i say she's victim only to her actions, bc what would've been the alternative?

clay staying passive and malleable and dependent, is that not infinitely more horrific? she literally ruined his life/entrapped him, stayed with him bc sunk costs, despite how that endangers her kids, and then is framed like the victim despite everything being a direct consequence of her actions, i just don't get it. ppl ascribe this sympathetic angle to her bc woe, she felt pressured and she's nuanced and obviously unhealthily coping but i hardly see that as a legitimate enough excuse for her actions, and im genuinely stumped by how ppl so readily neglect everything she did bc clay's now worse. like idk man, welcome to the consequences of your actions ig.

[il-re-kaneki]

Hello yes hi, my husband and I binge watched moral orel the other day and I can't believe that I missed out on such a treasure of a comedy. The #moraloral tag feeds my soul more than I thought it would. Adult swim can go suck ass for cutting moral orel short, for real.

[livepoultryfreshkilled]

just watched the meromorphic video essay (x) on morel orel. disappointed, and here's why:

surface level interpretation overall despite over an hour runtime, bad pacing

got some unspoken but clearly shown plot points wrong (orel did not KILL CHILDREN FOR THEIR BLOOD. it was obviously him getting his friends to drain their own blood into the bath. they were all shaking and holding their wrists over the tub. missing a key detail like that makes me doubt his takles on this media entirely)

heiniously underacknowledged the complexities of alone (ms sculptham wasn't just raped, she was part of her own plot to get creepler i think cause there was a whole thing about her dying her hair, "i just left the door unlocked," and he didn't even mention that she got an abortion with a coathanger. come on)

NITPICKY, ADMITTEDLY: cited a personal reddit post on representation of rape victims in media, which was not enough of an analysis of rape culture or the episode to serve as a source. but its a personal video essay he can get jiggy with it but i disliked it PERSONALLY. the post did make good points about how joking about rape in the previous seasons was greenlit but addressing the effects of that rape on the women got the show cancelled, but that wasn't even mentioned in the essay and it SHOULDVE BEEN

claimed it to be a criticism of "Southern Baptists in the Bible Belt" when it is explicitly portraying MIDWESTERN. american middle class nuclear family WASPs. SPECIFICALLY. the lack of faith, the prioritization of protestant work ethic and money, the structure of the puppington family (especially clay, literally a deconstruction of the glass of scotch pipe belt whupping american father) and like. the entire everything being about MIDWEST WASPs was key to the portrayal of the show. "southern baptists in the bible belt" come the fuck on

acted like it was a reveal that bloberta was racist? they're literally all racist. this is a portrayal of the ideal white supremacist WASP society. monoracial. they push this idea from the jump they are all racist dude to act like season 2 was where it showed up and saying thats the example of the tonal shift is just. naive at best.

used the concept of "whoa they were clay puppets with silly names but the show was serious and dark" as a justification for the vice quote/thesis "moral orel walked so shows like bojack horseman and rick & morty could fly"

which is a stupid way of saying it opened the doors not only for adult animation reaching darker topics but taking those topics seriously (as opposed to stuff like robot chicken) and executing them artistically anyway

but that isnt even a compelling justification, i wish he had gone more into the fact that the show was cancelled BECAUSE of that episode and that there was a followup episode called "Raped" that contributed to that. like if you're going to make your thesis imply the presence of meta-analysis FOLLOW UP ON THAT! not just that you personally drawing the conclusion of "the show is about dark things and everyone is sad" the show is about REAL things the show is about americana!

and bitch i could say more too. 2/5 stars. pedestrian. and so ends my catechism.

[lillyorlyracat]

THE F/O LIST!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay babies! This is it! This is the f/o list!

This will include almost EVERY SINGLE ONE of my fictional others! This is linked on my pinned post, which is likely where you're coming from. I'll update this from time to time with new skrunklies when they come up and

As for boundaries, I don't have many! If you happen to share an f/o with me, that's really cool, I'm not uncomfortable with that, they love you. If you need to block me because you are uncomfortable with f/o sharing, that's cool too! I totally understand.

Additionally, I am a minor, so a couple of my romantic f/o's are also minors (around my age). They're growing up with me, by the time I'm an adult they will also be adults,,, anwudggx I'm not weird ;w;

One more thing! I have a boyfriend irl who also selfships! It shares a good ton of f/o's with me, so I'll mark the ones we're both dating with a star (☆)

Okay. NOW I can list the characters...

Romantic f/o's

Tribore Menendez (Final Space)

Randall Boggs (Monsters Inc/University)☆

Marvin the Martian (all Looney Tunes media)☆

Roger Smith (American Dad)

Loki (Marvel)☆

Blitzø (Helluva Boss)☆

Sir Pentious (Hazbin Hotel)

Filburt Shellbach (Rocko's Modern Life)

Hawkodile (Unikitty!)

Lord Garmadon (LEGO Ninjago, but specifically the movie. I haven't seen the show)

Jenny Wakeman (My Life as a Teenage Robot)☆

Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter (Sailor Moon.. but the og not Crystal.. I don't plan on seeing Crystal)☆

Judy Hopps (Zootopia)☆

Pleakley (Lilo & Stitch)☆

MoominMamma (all Moomins media, but mostly the 90s series bc i'm the most familiar with that one)

Donatello (TMNT 2012)☆

Minion (Megamind)

Mr. Piranha (The Bad Guys)☆

Rapunzel (Tangled)☆

Triffany Lottablog (Bugsnax)

Crane (Kung Fu Panda)

Bandit Heeler (Bluey!)☆

Chilli Heeler (Bluey!)☆

Invader Skoodge (Invader Zim)

Lard Nar (Invader Zim)

Audrey II (Little Shop of Horrors)☆

Commander Peepers (Wander Over Yonder)☆

Flo (Splatoon 2)

Donnie and Raph (ROTTMNT)☆

Aristotle (Billie Bust Up!) ☆

Rusty Rose (Sonic Prime)

Shawn (Sunny Day Jack)

Thorax (MLP:FiM)

King Trollex (Trolls franchise)

Meta Knight (Kirby)☆

Miscellaneous f/o's that I'm not sure if they're romantic or queerplatonic or what but I still love them

Jevil (Deltarune)

Spamton (Deltarune)

Stripe Heeler (Bluey!)

Escargoon (Kirby)

Spinel (Steven Universe)

Queen (Deltarune)

Rouxls Kaard (Deltarune)

Colin the computer (Don't Hug Me I'm Scared)

Starlo (Undertale Yellow)

Mr Ping (Kung Fu Panda)

Tulio Triviño (31 Minutos)

Caine (The Amazing Digital Circus)

Cooper (Trolls)

Synth (Trolls Trollstopia)

There's a lot of deltarune characters in there.. Anyway,

Queerplatonic f/o's

Skelita Calaveras (Monster High)

Hairdresser Octopus/Takoyama (Parappa The Rapper)

Durpleton (Centaurworld)

Bloberta Puppington (Moral Orel)

Familial f/o's

Quatronosto Menendez (Final Space)

Trequeño Menendez (Final Space OC)

Ickis (AAAHH!!! Real Monsters)

Devil Cookie (Cookie Run)

Megamind (Megamind...)

Bluey Heeler (Bluey!)

Bingo Heeler (Bluey!)

Muffin Heeler (Bluey!)

Socks Heeler (Bluey!)

Ghoulia Yelps (G1 Monster High ONLY)

Beezle (Unico)

Vannelope Von Schweetz (Wreck-It Ralph)

Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon)

Gilbert, Shellbert, Norbert, and Missy Hutchison (Rocko’s Modern Life)

Orel Puppington (Moral Orel)

Ms. Tarantula (The Bad Guys)

Mr. Shark (The Bad Guys)

Ninni (all Moomins media but mostly the 90s series)

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup (Powerpuff Girls)

Leo and Mikey (ROTTMNT)

S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. (ROTTMNT)

Bugs Bunny (all Looney Tunes media)

Lock, Shock, and Barrel (Nightmare Before Christmas)

Moomin/Moomintroll (Moomins media, mostly 90s)

Little My (Moomins media, mostly 90s)

Loona (Helluva Boss)

Ma, Pa, and Junior Gorg (Fraggle Rock)

Oh (Home 2015)

All the other turtles (TMNT 2012)

Platonic f/o's

Every other Bugsnax character

Mike Wazowski (Monsters Inc/University/At Work)

Roxanne Richie (Megamind)

Casey Jones (TMNT 2012)

Callie (Splatoon)

Marie (Splatoon)

Rocko (Rocko's Modern Life)

Mr Hemulen (all moomins media,, specifically 90s,, you get it by now)

Marinette Dupain-Cheng (Miraculous Ladybug & Chat Noir)

Adrien Agreste (Miraculous Ladybug & Chat Noir)

All the other Centaurworld characters ever

All the Muppets ever. Every single one of them

Cotterpin Doozer (Fraggle Rock)

Every resident of Radiator Springs (Cars franchise)

Francine Smith (American Dad)

Legoshi (Beastars)

Scootaloo (MLP:FiM)

Apple Bloom (MLP:FiM)

Derpy (MLP:FiM)

Kirby

The whole Belcher family + Teddy (Bob's Burgers)

Unikitty (Unikitty!)

Puppycorn (Unikitty!)

Richard (Unikitty!)

Dr. Fox (Unikitty!)

The rest of the Furious Five (Kung Fu Panda)

Nick Wilde (Zootopia)

Baron Draxum & his little gargoyle minions (ROTTMNT)

And Po (Kung Fu Panda)

And Shifu (Kung Fu Panda)

And Zhen!! (Kung Fu Panda)

Fantoccio (Billie Bust Up)

Barnaby (Billie Bust Up)

Peridot (Steven Universe)

Fictionkin related f/o's🔥🪼🌺

Wade 💧

Wade's family <3 💦

Bernie & Cinder Lumen (my parents) ❤️‍🔥

Margot ✨️

Agatha, Arthur, & Sam Gillman (my parents and little brother) 🐙

Uncle Brill 🤪

Grandmamah 👑

Nessie!! 🐾

[+ bonus: my first fictional enemy! Chelsea 🧜‍♀️]

BRANCH!!! 🎤

Branch's brothers! <3 🎶

Viva 🌟

Several other trolls... 🤝

[But not Creek, screw that guy]

[Note: I haven't met any fictionkin folks who are them yet (I'm not counting my irl bf because he's not fictionkin though associate him with Wade and Branch), but I'd really like to meet Bernie & my kraken family, as well as just about anyone from Trolls🥲]

BRIDGET! 💇‍♀️

Barb 🎸

Alrighty! Well, that's all i can think of at the moment... thanks for reading I suppose :)

[adultswim2021]

Moral Orel #12: “Love” | November 20, 2006 – 12:15AM | S02E02

This is the dog episode of Moral Orel. In it, Orel comes to own a cute doggy that is also extremely well-behaved and brings love and joy everywhere it goes. The dog winds up sewing jealousy from all the adults around because it keeps mindlessly solving problems with it’s own bigheartedness. Example: the doctor in town tells a little girl she’ll never walk again. When Orel’s dog wanders into the waiting room it delights the little girl so much that she bounds out of her wheelchair to play with it, as though it's mere presence healed her. Rather than look at this as a wonderful miracle, the doctor gets mad at the dog for undermining him. There are many such cases. 

Earlier in the episode Orel puzzles over what to call his dog. The dog very clearly starts barking the word “JESUS”, in what might be the funniest scene in the episode. Orel is oblivious and decides to call him Bartholomew, named after Bartholomew the Apostle. Eventually Orel realizes that he may love the dog more than Jesus himself, and worries for his mortal soul. The towns adults, who’ve all joined a united front against Orel’s dog all show up and demand Orel have the dog put down for his many disruptions. In a scene that is about as subtle as the dog barking the words JESUS, he carries what resembles his own crucifix up the hill towards the veterinarian’s office. 

Bartholomew the apostle was skinned alive; martyred for converting the king of Armenia to Christianity. Because of this he is considered to be the patron saint of leather-makers. That sounds like a sick joke, but according to Wikipedia it's true! Just thought I'd throw that in there. Nasty way to get laughs but there we have it.

I’ve watched this episode a few times expecting it to be an emotional one, and in fact there are participants in the audio commentary track that moan about the ending and I believe may even have left the room when it happened. Surprisingly this one, while conceptually sad, rarely pulls on my heart strings in this way. That’s because the satirical and parabolic aspects of the episode shine through much more than the emotional ones. That’s my opinion, of course. Maybe if you’ve just lost your dog and watched this you’d be a sobbing mess. 

(YOU CAN SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU WANT) I hate the movie Mrs. Doubtfire for a few reasons, but chief among them are that my father took me to go see it while my mother took our own pet dog to get put down one afternoon. That exact night a rerun of Coach aired. Luther had a new dog that was too rambunctious and he was ordered to have it put down (which was literally the reason we were having ours put down - guy bit a hole through my ear and gave my sister a black eye once). Under normal circumstances I’d like to think that I could get through all the episodes of Coach without too many tears. No such luck that night.

But the entire point of the episode is to provide a real-life parallel between Christianity and Christians behaving unchristian-like. From the start, the show was always said to be an attack on people who give Christianity a bad name rather than mocking the religion itself, and this episode is maybe the most potent example of that concept. But there’s one thing I’m not very clear on, and it might not matter, but it’s this: is the dog supposed to be like, the second-coming of Christ? It's funny that the dog is so bizarrely insistent on being called Jesus, but that could be just a meta joke about how much telegraphing the writers are doing to make you understand the point of the episode. But... is this guy Jesus in the Moral Orel cinematic universe? I'm asking!

[pregstiel]

thinking about dean and jack through the lens of moral orel again. spoilers for moral orel but long story short, at the end of the second season the main character (orel) is shot in the leg by his drunk father while they’re out hunting. it is this action and his father’s subsequent refusal to take any blame that makes orel finally wake up to the abuse his father has been putting him through for years, and permanently alters his psyche and relationship to his father. this is reflected on a meta level as the third season is the first season of the show to be nonlinear, covering various events from the past to the future, but all of them anchored firmly in this Event that haunts the story like a ghost.

what i’m saying is. s15 should have done this, with moriah as the focal point.

[megamindenjoyer]

Look I dont think ill make much sense here and I haven't even finished the show yet but I think ms Censordoll's character progression in "Offensiveness" is fascinating, because it's the same exact thing we see with clay. Except Coach Stopframe is his eggs. Like. That episode establishes how eggs are the only thing that brings ms Censordoll genuine joy, sure, she might enjoy burning books and picketing, but she enjoys those in a sadistic way, making sure others are punished for "behaving incorrectly."

However, once her own source of pleasure (eggs) is deemed "immoral" by orel and half the city, instead of admitting she was wrong for protesting people's harmless interests, and growing as a person, she stuck to her image, and preferred to protest the eggs in public and purchase them in secret.

And much like that, it's clear that if clay divorced Bloberta like she suggested in the christmas special and got together with coach stopframe, the one person clay loves (in a manner that's not insanely complicated like his ehhhhh love????? for Orel), he'd be much happier, and it would also be much healthier for literally every single person involved. But it would taint their image. And god forbid the puppingtons have a smudge in their image. So he stays quite literally pulling a "no children" with bloberta and loving stopframe in secret

[maounteighn]

clay clinically can't reciprocate feeling lol. it's in his core – he can only take bc he stuck in that childish state when he didn't need to give back. angela's abrupt death cuts his life experience into before and after. he copes with 'after' but in his core he never accepts it and never learns how to live 'after'. he finds other ways to satisfy his 'before' needs (in.e.: how he sees physical punishment from his father as love).

people who who don't satisfy his 'before' needs are of no interest for him at best, a burden usually. like bloberta, shapey and block for instance. he didn't get unconditional love and adoration from bloberta – the hell he needs her for then?

he takes interest from danielle but never plans to reciprocate – he is fine with how it is. even if at the core of their relationship was just friendship, clay would have been a shitty friend anyways. he is not interested in others, he is not interested in returning the feeling bc he feels entitled to love an attention others give him. that's also particularly why he didn't realise sooner that he also maybe have some feeling for danielle. for him this attention was granted, no matter what was the source. he throws his pitiful tamper tantrum in Honour partially bc he felt robbed of love and attention that were usually reserved for him. his fit was his fruitless attempt at getting it back – needless to say he lost this channel completely.

orel is also someone he sees as a source of unconditional love and adoration even though it should be the other way – he is the parent this time. he gives him love though, just like his own father did. and it's no secret in the fandom that orel was probably the only person clay actually cared about, even in his own twisted ways.

[jakowskis]

back in april i watched moral orel & clay’s speech in sacrifice... i was impressed, but i didn’t understand it initially. so i dissected it & wrote an analysis of it, so here it is.

transcript of the speech:

(1) Tell me, Doc. Did some of those pain killers protect her against you? You know. The pain. Of you. Day in, day out, being there. With that face. Not knowing what to say. Not caring anymore. Not even knowing that you'll probably only care about her when it's finally too late. 

(2) Forgetting about all those desperate- those desperate years you spent alone, your barren years when no woman would even consider resting her tired head on your shaky little shoulder. Stinking of belly semen. Why even wipe? 

(3) And when you finally get one of these [Points at Dolly and imitates a fanfare] coveted pieces of tail that have been built up as the grand trophy in your nothing life, you try desperately to keep it. Not to protect it! But to hoard it. To keep it away from the other wolves and jackals circling your territory! 

(4) And you realize, all too soon, that you're not good enough! That maybe there was a jerk-off called Darwin after all. And that you never acknowledged his existence because you knew deep inside that you were really what you feared you were- weak. And passive. And ultimately, broken by the ones who were made the fittest. And that through your weaknesses, you built up a poison that poisoned others around you. [About to cry] That you love. And the only true justice was to let those dominant jackals feed on you. Survive off you.

my analysis:

For starters, some people are interpreting his speech as if he's exclusively talking about himself; he's not. He's referencing the plights of the three men he's addressing, and said plights happen to also (mostly) apply to him. He's not raving about himself, at least until the end; he's reading the men for filth, and using his own experiences to further get them where it hurts.

(1) Clay starts with the doctor, who he accuses of having purposefully killed his own wife, out of never having cared about her and wanting her done away with ("I hope you die / I hope we both die."). This is something Clay relates to, but he turns it around and, strangely, empathizes with the wife - asking the doctor if he's tricked himself into thinking that the medicinal comfort he provided her in her final days made up for the years she wasted being with a man who didn't care about her, not even enough to try to communicate in an attempt fix things. He cares now that she's gone, because he knows he didn't appreciate what he had when he had it. He never could've known that you could miss something once it's gone even if you loathed it when you actually had it.

(2) Then he turns to Reverend Putty, and Clay finds himself unable to relate to him; instead, he feels resentment and a mocking sense of pity. Putty had spent so many years alone, and yet when he finally got what he'd wanted all this time, he was unappreciative and choosy, when Clay, and several other of the town (and society)'s men, had simply had to settle for whatever they could find, and thus felt victimized by having "had" to resign themselves. It's kind of an "are you happy now, asshole?" thing. The semen thing is a bit random and off putting, but I suppose he's referring to Putty's frequent masturbation. He, almost sadly, asks him what the point of wiping it away every time is, when it's a daily reality. That it always ends up being him and his hand. I don't think Clay was also speaking about himself here, though I suppose he does relate to feeling intimacy-starved.

(3) His third target is the officer, who's struggling with having lost his wife to divorce and, now, to another man. This Clay relates to, and finally, he starts to get emotional. Clay also abandons his martyr complex for a moment and is uncharacteristically self-aware and self-critical. The "coveted pieces of tail" bit gets its own section in a moment, because it ties into the whole theme of Clay's rant and I'll use it to conclude this analysis, so for now, we'll address the second part. Clay says that once you find a woman, you put your energy into keeping her ("it", in his words, because Clay's very much a misogynist, in the traditionalist sense). But there's no noble intentions - it's not a desire to protect, it's simple greed. Territorialism. Animal instinct... nature, really. Clay's very pre-occupied with the world's "natural order". He doesn't question anything; he enforces what appeals to and backs up his warped perception of reality, and disregards the rest.

4) He carries this idea about nature into his assault on his final target; himself. It's the emotional climax of his rant, and he finally finds it in himself to address his own issues blatantly, though still not directly; he never can speak candidly without deflecting. Clay's final conclusion is that Darwin's theory of evolution was right all along, especially in the concept of natural selection, otherwise known as "the survival of the fittest". Clay falls into male insecurity here; worrying that maybe he's been a beta male the whole time, weak and passive and complacent, and was made worse by the alphas out to get him... namely, the world as a whole. While he doesn't accept responsibility, he at least displays some self-awareness by acknowledging his behavior has harmed his family, though he blames said behavior on having been broken by the world... by the natural course of the universe. Though he can't fault himself for building up "a poison", as, to him, that's an understandable coping mechanism against what he'd endured, he does fault himself for poisoning his loved ones - namely, Orel. I think destroying his relationship with the one person who loved him unconditionally really fucked him up. And for his crime of being poison, the only justice is to surrender to the beast that is nature. Let it feed on him, so that the cycle can continue.

It's a commentary on the American ideal, especially in a little Bible belt town like Moralton; the commonly accepted idea that the only objective in life is to find a spouse ("the grand trophy") and procreate. In Moral Orel's characters, this is emphasized to the extent that anyone who doesn't achieve this is ostracized and labeled by their loneliness (see: the alone episode, where the women live in a place called "apartments for spinsters"). Those "lonely souls" then desperately seek comfort in another human, any other human, without acknowledging the possibility that they could be just fine and happy on their own. They idealize the concept of companionship to all hell (Putty, especially), and are envious of married people, without realizing that marriage out of obligation is a recipe for a lifetime of misery. And while Clay finds himself victimized by this ideal, rather than being angry at the actual concept, in a rare moment of taking responsibility (and of course he misplaces it), he blames himself for not being able to live up to a common standard. Because he's not strong enough to happily resign himself, like a man "should". Everyone always said that's all anyone ever needed; a family to cherish. So why isn't it enough for Clay? What's wrong with him for being so dissatisfied? It can't be that it's simply a bullshit "ideal", because he likely thinks said ideal came from God himself - so it must be Clay himself. This is sometimes where his occasional self-loathing comes from, when it manages to overwhelm the narcissism; not that he's a bad person, but that he's a bad man. That he's a weak man. It’s rooted in toxic masculinity. He, and the other men in their small, closed off little world, are just so damn desperate to fit into what they're "supposed" to be. What's right - what's God's will. Fuck individuality; in their conservative and traditional society, they have a set path they must stick to. If they deviate, they’re an abomination, but God forbid they let anyone know they’re not perfect - and so, they’re stuck, alone, in their own misery and unhappiness, living with their sins and lies and shame. Not knowing they have any other options.

Clay's entire rant is about the masculine end of this concept; you find a nice woman and you marry her, because that's what you're supposed to do, right? And you hope you'll find fulfillment and stability and contentment with her. You even hope to love her, but you can't when you're too busy loathing her for taking your freedom away. You never realized marriage was the first step out of the liberty of adolescence, and into adult misery. You thought things would be better, because why else would this be the ideal? So you start to hate her. But you can't leave because then, what do you have? Nothing ("in your nothing life"). Then you have kids, and you pray you'll find what you wanted (and needed) all along in that instead. Being a husband wasn't what you thought it'd be, but maybe being a father will be different. Because those empty titles you can claim as pieces of your identity are the only things you have. And you fucked up being a son, you fucked up being a husband, and you won't let yourself fuck up being a dad.

But when you're Clay, the wife introduced you to the bottle years ago, and you began relying on it to silence how much you hated the control she had over you. Suddenly, you're an alcoholic, and you want to care about your son(s), but you can't. You want to love them, but you don't. Hell, years later, you start a relationship with a man, and he loves you, more than your wife has in years, and you want to love him back, but you just can't. That part of you that loved your mother years ago has since been destroyed by years of drinking and bitterness and anger. You've spent so long blaming everyone (your wife, your father, God, society), because you could never deal with the reality that it might be you. But at the back of your head, you know it is, yet you try to drown it out with the booze. But it never goes away, and you know you're poison, and you hate yourself, as you told your son in the forest that one awful night. And then you're in a bar ranting to a bunch of pathetic, lonely assholes, trying to make them feel as shitty as you do, because that's the only control you have anymore. But at the same time, you know you're the most pathetic, lonely one there. And then they leave, like everyone else, and you're alone. Alone with yourself. And you hate them for leaving, but you can't blame them for thinking you're not worth it. Because you know you're not, and that's the hardest pill to swallow.

[moraloreldeservedbetter]

episode idea

everyone watch's their own show and orel is having second hand embarrassment

[thesoftboiledegg]

This was such a great episode! I expected crazy shit to happen, especially with the hyper-realistic video game. I was like, "OK, this entire episode is going to turn out to be a simulation" and was pleasantly surprised when the "hyper-realism" was just a joke.

Anyway, it makes me so happy that Beth is bisexual. I figured she was, but the show never stated it either way. That's four out of five--only Morty is left. And to be honest, I think he's bisexual after his weird, unexplained obsession with Bruce Chutback in season 5, but the episode didn't outright say it.

I loved watching Beth and Space Beth fall for each other and go on dates. And OK, they're the same person, but they've made different choices and had wildly different life experiences. This created some tension and intrigue because they're not just repeating the same words and phrases back to each other like an echo.

Sarah Chalke gave a great performance, too. I'd say this is easily her best performance in the entire show. The dialogue was so natural that it sounded like it came from a live-action drama and not a cartoon. Rick and Morty has always had decent dialogue--and Rick in particular sounds like a real person talking at times--but this was another level of realism.

These new writers definitely know what they're doing. Damn.

I could NOT believe it when Rick said that he's fooled around with other Ricks. Holy shit. I actually paused and rewound the video because I was like "...did he seriously just say that?" It's been part of fandom culture for years, but I NEVER thought it would be in the show. Especially with C-137, who's a notorious Rick killer and hates them almost as much as he hates himself.

This makes me so happy! And it's yet another confirmation that Rick is pansexual. Give it up, homophobic fans, because the evidence just keeps mounting.

And like the other episodes in seasons 5 and 6, "Bethic Twinstinct" shows a new side of Rick--someone who's calmer, more patient and willing to help his family instead of just taking what he wants, then throwing a hissy fit when they get sick of it.

Rick's relationship with Jerry is changing, too. He says that he installed the "pillbug protocol" because he got drunk with Jerry one night (that's pretty big in itself) and installed the protocol because Jerry said that's what he "wanted most in the world." Rick wasn't being an asshole. He actually gave Jerry something that he wanted.

And yeah, Rick could be lying, but I think he's telling the truth this time.

Overall, this episode was a good combination of everything. Beth exploring various aspects of her personality, Rick bonding with Beth and his grandkids, Jerry letting out his frustration instead of being passive. Admittedly, Morty and Summer didn't do much, but they were still fun. I enjoyed the meta jokes about how they've had a million Thanksgivings and don't even know how old they are at this point.

This episode didn't explain those creepy posters where Space Beth appears to be controlling her family, so I'm guessing she'll turn up again--and this time, it might not be so friendly.

Anyway, the one part I disliked was the ending. The implication was "Haha yeah, Jerry's got two hot wives that will fool around in front of him." Normally, I'd call it lowkey sexist, but this episode did have Beth and Space Beth exploring a romantic relationship without Jerry's involvement. Still, I'm not a fan. I guess they're cucking Jerry in there? lmao.

Some might dislike this comparison, but Rick and Morty is starting to remind me of Moral Orel, especially with this episode in particular. Both shows start off as rambunctious comedies but explore more mature and dramatic themes as they go on. Honestly, "Bethic Twinstinct" wasn't that funny, but the character development is a worthy trade-off for me.

[orojuice]

The Source of the Static

Another comic by me and Sha-Y.

For a moment, I would like you to quiet the questions you might have of what might happen in Pibby, who she might meet, and how deep its lore and meta logistics will descend, and focus on where it’s going to be airing.

To wit, from what we’ve seen, it’s going to be a Kingdom Hearts-esque dark adventure show except with Cartoon Network properties, more blood, and probably more swearing. It’s a conflict between kids’ show protagonist Pibby and “The Static”, an antagonistic force is the Static, a black, surreal mass that snatches and corrupts everything in its path, making previously benign characters and archetypes say and do heinous things to further its own ends. And this is going to happen on the Adult Swim programming block.

Adult Swim.

The same place where all this happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNEZsruEBqE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQAHQimuef4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPsomQr_pEA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49-Y8vgycss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAknYYMh_98

Now, cartoons and pastiche have always had a strong connection. Political caricatures have been around for over a century. Ditto for satirical newspaper strips. Looney Tunes and Disney stars parodied topical pop culture items like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and old fairy tales like Jack & The Beanstalk. And even they took some licks of their own with Ralph Bakshi’s Coonskin and Ed Roth’s Rat Fink. Adult-oriented animation existed before Adult Swim, even adult animation programming blocks did (see: MTV’s Oddities).

But there was no brand on television whose foundations were exclusively built on parodies that specifically targeted other cartoons. And these weren’t stand-ins or substitutes reminiscent of other cartoon characters ala Drawn Together or Cuphead. These were fully realized (and partly animated) twisted reinventions of the actual properties: Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Have Birdman, Attorney at Law, The Brak Show, and Sealab 2021. They’ve expanded and experimented over the years, sometimes with outright and aggressively original content, but what tends to stick around are the programs that are provide accessible and versatile (and profitable) avenues of spoofing and deconstruction. Robot Chicken and the revived Family Guy are the most obvious examples of this, but a huge chunk of Rick and Morty, their biggest hit right now, consists of the leads lampooning and occasionally humiliating established properties like Captain Planet, Voltron, and the MCU to prop themselves up by extension.

These shows shock, sometimes horrify, and yet they often delight. If you know about Pibby, there’s a high chance you know about Adult Swim, and there’s a likelihood you’ve enjoyed some of their programming and the style of comedy therein. Has it all been in good taste? Well, it’s all been fair. Fair use, in fact. This kind of commentary/critique might not always be nice, constructive, or safe for work, but it’s always been valid legally and artistically.

Which is how Adult Swim and those they’ve worked with have managed to have it both ways. They’ve used the higher age rating and mature content umbrella to enter filthy but ultimately human territory to talk about heavy topics; you can see this in how Moral Orel talks about faith and family, or in the way the Venture Brothers tackle arrested development in an inverted boys’ adventure cosmos. Then again. they can easily have Aquaman stand by and allow a woman to be violently assaulted just because she’s being attacked on land, and facilitate other low-hanging dankness. The block picks its battles, that can’t be denied, but they’ve never shied away from cruelty, gore, pedantry, violence, and the odd bout of character assassination. Mostly for entertainment purposes, and as said before, while these can be mean-spirited, the method is technically neutral if not benign.

So imagine my surprise when the Static showed its stuff. If Pibby’s trailer had been for a regular Cartoon Network (they can get away with a lot more than you’d think) or even an HBO Max program, I would’ve been conventionally intrigued and maybe even horrified at what was happening. But Adult Swim? Transforming Fred Flintstone into an extension of a malefic alien mass isn’t even the most evil thing Adult Swim has turned him into or event (the worst thing they’ve done to him). They want us to dread the Powerpuff Girls going bad? Well, maybe they shouldn’t have inoculated us to it with that one skit where some cocaine got into their mix. The Scooby Gang are vicious killers? Again? Pibby’s cute bunny sidekick has been horribly mutated into a vicious monster? They’ve been doing that to traditionally adorable cast members for nearly twenty years. However, what transformed this moment of incredulity to one of fascination was how this Static was the - barring some twist - the villain in this scenario; the deforming, deconstructive force was the villain.

Fans, critics, and even some creators have weighed in at times to bring up how some of this ostensibly adult content has been overly cynical, vacuously vicious, or even harmful. They’ve done this with words, with videos, with comics, and even the odd video game (Toonstruck) or movie (The Spongebob Squarepants Movie). But this sentiment has never been expressed in such a lengthy and serialized fashion as a tv show, and be so directly confrontational to an artistic device that has been the cornerstone and lynchpin of the place it’ll be aired on.

Intentional or not, that’d be audacious; biting the hand that makes bank. Even daring in a way that supposedly startling works (MeatCanyon, Flashgitz, Cas Van De Pol) can’t be. Theoretically, I mean.

I know that, if that is what’s going in, it likely won’t be that clean cut. The series bible states that Pibby is going to master “the power of darkness” herself to save the day - set a fox to catch a fox - in a manner concurrent with her gradual character development. So perhaps the theme is to find a way to distinguish how deconstruction can facilitate explorations of happenings, topics, and interactions beyond comfortable archetypes and plot structures (Melira and Alloy Boy will apparently benefit from this as that same series bible hints) are distinct from glib and borderline regressive observations and cheap shots that at their lowest, seek to punish sincerity of every stripe.

I can’t say for sure.

Additionally, due to everything listed above, I probably won’t - if Pibby becomes a show - watch it as it airs, because I don't want to be wringing my hands each week waiting for the big “Adult Swim was the baddie all along” twist to happen or not. I still want to watch it, but likely as a binge affair after maybe asking some other viewers if that happened or not. So I don't get disappointed if it isn't the case and I can enjoy it for what it is, you understand.

Just to play it safe, that’s why I worked together with u/Sha-Yurigami to make this comic over the weekend and blasted out this spiel in a couple of hours. So even if this moment doesn’t occur in the cartoon, it’ll have done so here.

Whatever the case, here’s hoping that Pibby will be a fun ride if it gets the green light.

[hachichimitsu]

About Me

🕊 Zoe 🕊 She/Her 🕊 23 🕊 INFJ 6w7 🕊 Filipino-American 🕊 Commissions Open 🕊 Available for Freelance Work @ Fiverr / VGen / Artistree 🕊 Email: official.hachichimitsu@gmail.com

Hello! I’m Hachi! I’m a freelance artist that likes to dabble in other creative outlets in my life. Below are some of the tags I generally use:

1. #hachichiart —> Art Tag

2. #hachichiposts —> Original Text Posts

3. #hachichimitsu’s cognitive functions series —> Typology Posts

4. #hachichifics —> Fic Tag

5. #hachichishippinglogs —> OTP Tag

6. #hachichimeta —> Meta / Analysis Tag

7. #hachi answers —> Ask Tag

My art commissions are fully open! If you’re interested in commissioning me, all the commission details and info can be found right here —> click here.

I'm also available for freelance work, so if you’re interested in having me work with you on your projects, you’re free to contact me via email: official.hachichimitsu@gmail.com. I also take on freelance orders on Fiverr, VGen, and Artistree.

I also have a children’s picture e-book that I self-published on Amazon. I made it as a requirement for my high school thesis, so while the art there is definitely a representation of my past, I still stand by the message I was trying to send. I hope to eventually branch out this series in a form of a webcomic of sorts, for people who can’t afford to purchase my e-book for financial reasons. These characters are extremely dear to me, and I can’t wait to expound on them when I have the time lmao. Here’s a tag regarding the series: #behindtheartistichand

I also sell art merch (mainly of my sheep mascot), in which you can find here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/Hachichimitsu/shop

You simply just want to donate me cash for the fun of it? Here’s my ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/hachichimitsu. Perhaps once I hit a certain amount of followers, I’ll open up a Patreon.

Some note-worthy things to mention, this blog is generally 15+, but I do make sure to tag any NSFW content and general triggers out there. I often post and retweet adult animation, so I’d say tread carefully if you’re a minor. I can be pretty critical with the media I consume, but most of the time, I like to expound on the positives of my favorite things. I am also very unserious.

Please let me know privately if I did or say anything wrong. Sometimes I say things without meaning to, and I’m not the brightest crayon in the box, so constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. If you take offense with anything I posted, feel free to send a DM or an anonymous ask so I can be educated regarding the subject. I’m also available for any questions, DMs and a genuine chit-chat.

Want to check out more of my stuff? Here’s my LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/hachichimitsu

MAIN INTERESTS

1. Found Family Narratives

2. Emotionally Impactful Character-Driven Storytelling

3. Western Adult Animation (e.g. yes, including the trashy kind)

4. Adult Swim

5. Well-Written Children’s Media

6. Coming-of-Age Stories

7. Magical Girls

8. Psychological Horror

9. Video Essays & Film Studies

10. Metal Bands (Primarily Doom Metal, Technical Thrash Metal, Power Metal and Progressive Metal)

11. K-POP / J-POP / Western Girl Groups

12. 4LT (MBTI), Typology, Cognitive Functions

13. All Types of Artistic Endeavors (OCs, FanArt, Comics, Film, Music, Fanfiction, etc.)

TOP 6 ANIME SERIES (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)

1. K-ON!!

2. Hunter x Hunter

3. Neon Genesis Evangelion

4. Ojamajo Doremi

5. Revolutionary Girl Utena

6. Serial Experiments Lain

TOP 6 CARTOON SERIES (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)

1. South Park

2. Bojack Horseman

3. Moral Orel

4. Code Lyoko

5. Metalocalypse

6. Spongebob Squarepants

FAVORITE MOVIES 

1. Interstellar (Favorite Sci-Fi Movie of All Time)

2. Nacho Libre (Favorite Guilty Pleasure Movie of All Time)

3. Johnny Got His Gun (Personally, this is my pick of the scariest movie of all time due to the sheer hypothetical existential dread I experienced while watching it.)

4. The Shining (Phenomenally eerie from start to finish. The movie in itself was stellar. What Stanley Kubrick did to Shelly Duvall wasn't.)

5. The Mist (I hear this movie surpasses the novel, but you and I both know that I haven’t touched a book in Aeons, so I’ll keep you posted if this is #true.)

6. The Green Mile

7. Shawshank Redemption

8. Studio Ghibli Films (Particularly Ponyo, My Neighbor Totoro & Grave of the Fireflies)

9. Perfect Blue (Favorite Anime Movie)

10. One Cut of the Dead (It’s hard to recommend this movie without spoiling it, but it’s an absolute must that you finish it in its entirety before you proceed to make any further judgments)

11. Coraline (Very typical of me, but I remember this being one of the very first movies I’ve ever watched in theaters, so naturally it has a tight grip on me)

12. Interview with the Vampire (Favorite Vampire movie of all time that doesn’t seem overdone or cliché. It’s also really gay)

13. Shrek

14. The Lord of the Rings Franchise (My dad is the biggest LOTR fan out there, and so it’s natural that he converted me to his ways.)

15. Get Out

16. Us

17. Soul (Favorite children’s movie of all time.)

18. Up

19. Ratatouille

20. Toy Story 2 (I have never cried at a movie until this one.)

21. Hereditary

22. Audition (Went into it blind and came out a changed man.)

23. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Greatest slasher film of all time in my eyes.)

24. Liz and the Blue Bird (Even if you aren't familiar with Hibike! Euphonium, I highly recommend checking this movie out.)

25. Office Space (Great in a sense that I actually want to see a series out of this.)

26. Zoolander (I reference this movie 24/7. Orange Mocha Frappechino <3)

27. The Warriors (I legit want an expansive universe of this storyline. It’s too good to pass up.)

28. Turning Red (Encapsulated my 13-year old weeby self perfectly.)

OTHERS

1. Homestuck (It’s been a good while since I read Homestuck, so my memory of the general storyline is fuzzy. I’ll re-read it once I have the chance)

2. When They Cry (Currently up-to date with the Higurashi anime and watched the live-action movies. Finally started to tackle the sound novels. Have yet to encounter Umineko and Ciconia)

3. Age of Youth (Favorite K-drama of all time.)

4. Squid Game (Battle Royale-type thriller series that tackles capitalism and the illusion of choice and free will? Sign me the fuck up)

5. Kaiji (Same reason as above, though I like Kaiji a tad bit more)

6. Majisuka Gakuen (Favorite J-drama of all time. Honestly, this series is like the movie “The Warriors”, but totally unserious and with an all-female cast plus. Also, yes, I’m biased because of my love for AKB48.)

7. Flight of the Conchords (Favorite live-action series of all time.)

8. Adult Cartoons (Bojack Horseman, Rick & Morty, The Boondocks, Camp Camp, Superjail, The Oblongs, The Simpsons, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Home Movies, Beavis & Butthead, Daria, Smiling Friends, Aggretsuko, F is for Family, most shows from Adult Swim really 🤷‍♀️)

9. Mockumentaries + Sitcoms (The Office, Flight of the Conchords, Three’s a Company, Spinal Tap, iCarly)

10. FilmCow (I absolutely love everything they put out.)

11. The Eric Andre Show (A good friend recommended me this show, and I haven’t stopped since.)

12. Nathan for You (My humor condensed into one show.)

13. Undertale (Will pick up Earthbound, Omori, LISA: The Painful eventually)

14. The Haunting of Hill House / Bly Manor (Don’t let the jump-scares deceive you. It’s a genuinely good character-driven horror series.)

15. Fictional Children / Adolescents Overcoming Dangerous Scenarios (Digimon Tamers, The Promised Neverland, Alice Academy, Code Lyoko, The World Ends with You, Total Drama Island, Danganronpa, Infinity Train, Stranger Things)

16. Shounen Anime (Hunter x Hunter, Yu Yu Hakusho, Mob Psycho 100, Dragon Ball Z, Soul Eater, Fullmetal Alchemist)

17. Magical Girl Anime (Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Tokyo Mew Mew, Mermaid Melody, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, RWBY, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Princess Tutu, Powerpuff Girls (Including Z), Bee and Puppycat, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Steven Universe)

18. Melancholic / Bittersweet WLW Media (Liz and the Blue Bird, Adachi to Shimamura, Sugar wa Otoshigoro)

You know what? Check out all of my favorite type of shows at my Trakt.tv account: https://trakt.tv/users/hachichimitsu

[maounteighn]

Overanalising Moral Orel: Clay, Bloberta and the Colour Theory

p.2 Bloberta

p.1

In p.1 we have already established that Bloberta's colour is red and it remained red throughout her whole journey. Her sense of Self was untouched neither by marriage nor by parenthood. When we are taking about relativity of her identity, she doesn't base it around or against anyone in her current family.

Her style barely changes, always containing red and white. However, she gradually loses white in her garments the more she decides to walk on her own. Her younger self up to that wedding in Help wears the most white – visually it softens the boldness of her red skirt. At the reception party she wears mostly red, white is only her belt and headband – red is also more saturated. The same red remains in her post-wedding daily wear. While white is not only in her collar, but also her apron, it is a completely different piece of clothing. Underneath the apron there's still her red dress. White apron dilutes red too, making it look less assertive, but it's only for the time she wears it. It's like a mask of a housewife and a mother, that she willing puts on for a meantime. Underneath it it's still her real, very persistent Self, that she is not particularly trying to hide. She also water down her true Self to appear less threatening to the society – she is a woman who has desires, attitudes and strength she shouldn't demonstrate. So not to apper a deviant, she has to adopt a socially acceptable Persona for herself.

Despite common beliefs that woman's true identity is of a wife and a mother, Bloberta is never changed by acquiring these statuses. Quite opposite, it's Clay who shapes his identity in relation to her (against her). It a simple visual storytelling, he is nothing significant to her, he is an instrument to her goals and desires, a tool. And a useless tool, too.

What has actually influenced Bloberta's sense of Self had done it way before she and Clay met. Take a look at her family.

Her mother Regina wears a mix of brown, red and very dark-green. Everyone else wears a variation of her colours. Modella – red and yellow-green, Lunchbox – green, Raymond – brown. Together they look very homogeneous too. They don't stick out, they don't clash, they don't take attention away from Regina. In comparison, their wardrobes are also similar and very simple, mostly plain l, while hers is quite busy and speckled, ornated. She is the center of attention. Raymond blends with the background, Modella and Lunchbox are like an extension of her perfect aesthetic. And all together they look classy, a very much dark academia family. That to be said, literally no one on the picture is allowed to diverge from the selected route (even their interior is in gren/brown/red) – they HAVE to be inside the borders of The Family Aesthetic or else...

In other words, they are constantly putting up a show, a collective Persona. The are not a perfect family by any standards, but Regina tightly manages their public image. Even at the reception the are like this.

But Who we have across the table? Bloberta. Her bright red skirt and white patterned blouse. She doesn't fit in the family approved hue of red, she wears too much white – she reflects too much light, her red looks even brighter again it. She is just that bright. Her reception dress is also bright red. If she was ever allowed to stand closer to them, they would look dull. So she never is. She is a family outcast. It's also reflective of a talent that she possess so naturally but is never able to utilise bc no one is interested. Despite her constant search of love and acceptance, she adopts this identity of a black – or rather red – sheep of the family that functionally casts her aside. She doesn't change to appeal to her mother's taste, probably bc it's senseless. Regina is not interested in Bloberta or her success, so it wouldn't matter anyways.

See, also, if her father was truly affiliated with her, he would have won a bit of her red maybe. It would've been a nice touch. But we know that he was too reluctant to defend his daughter even if he felt sorry for her. Her siblings are not on her side either. Lunchbox is actually her antipode – completely in green, a contrasting, complementary colour to red from the opposite side of the colour wheel – a son, a youngest child, a talent her mother actually wants. He is everything Bloberta is not. Modella, despite being closer to Bloberta in colour theme, in tone is closer to their mother. She may be not so aggressively opposite, but she is too reluctant to align with her. She has softer colour, she might be on good terms with her personally, but wouldn't risk standing up for her to Regina. Thus, Bloberta is completely alienated from her family.

Also, Bloberta's clashing style can be interpreted as her subconscious attempt to separate herself from her siblings in a desperate attempt to get attention too. Bloberta is a middle child, moreover she is a middle daughter inbetween an older sister and a younger brother. It's socially acceptable to deem her invisible – you already have an excellent daughter and a son™, this one is spare. Red is a very noticeable colour, it attracts attention. In Bloberta's case, it can also be so that she is noticed even if looked at passively. This way, her bright red is imprinted on someone's retina, even if they barely acknowledge her presence. This way, her mother, despite looking past her every day, never forgets that she is there. Thus, red is her only chance to be noticed by somebody, anybody. It's a survival tactics for her. Her depressed, meek attitude at home, and everywhere where she is with her family, doesn't allow her to come to her own character. To avoid being an afterthought, she wears bright red and contrasts it will white.

Now, let's take a look at her friend group. They all seem to have a similar style of colour combination. Pastel tones, dark-light, no more than two colours etc. But you see, no one is so on the nose like Bloberta. Even that one girl, that wears red too – it's not the same. Her red is darker, closer to brown and contrasted with light green, that is also with red plaid. The all are colourful, of course, but tame. It's just Bloberta who is standing out, and not only bc she's the only single friend now.

Also, there's another character, who stands out just like Bloberta, but in an opposite technique. Censodoll and her in this instance actually (and in general) share some similar characters despite such a dramatic difference in colour identity. They are both single, their Self shaped by actions of their mothers, the Self so strong, that they keep it throughout the whole life. However Censodoll approaches her existence with black – colour that absorbs light. She is not susceptible to the influence of her environment, but she is acutely aware of it – subsequently she can exploit it for her own gain. (Censodoll deserves her own separate paragraph).

White is a very reflective colour, it reflects light from its surrounding. Pre-Help Bloberta is very much receptive of what her surrounding thinks and expects of her and she reflects back exactly that. The slow decline of white elements in her clothes can signify gradual maturing, jadedness. Young Bloberta is still sensitive, naïve and youthfully innocent. She's of course already lost most of her expectations, learned to accept that little consideration she's given and not object or ask for more. At the reception she wears mostly red because the earlier encounter with her friend group gave her a motivation – to get engaged asap to be included again. The tone is more saturated, the white belt or headband does very little to counteract it – she drops the act she does without her family around, she is confident in her actions too. Subsequently, this becomes a colour of her victory and her downfall.

I have to say, the only time Bloberta ever abandoned her significant red was during her affair with Stopframe. It's a sportswear, so it's usually white. But on a storytelling side, it tell us about her (and his) motives a lot.

She wears all white with a tiny bit of blue. You see, we already established how white is a reflective colour. Story wise she is trying to be someone different too, just this once. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's unauthentic for her, just that it diverges greatly from her original and by that time setted colour identity. Its probable, that she is also putting a very strong and exaggerated act – she's desperate after all. It's been at least 4 years of her marriage to Clay, that was a horrible mistake from day 1, she knew it instantly, too. So this act here is targeted to secure her a better relationship (or so she thinks). It's actually the same approach she used on Clay in Help + longevity. The one thing she definitely has learnt was that she shouldn't immediately jump to a conclusion. So here, she is expanding her act in time and also putting more effort in her reflection. A tiny bit of blue is her way of associating with Stopframe, blue is one of his signature colours, especially to her. (Notably, he also has a tiny bit of red – he is also putting up an act here, they are quite the same in their tactics. He wears white, just like Bloberta, for the effect of reflection – he is whatever she wants him to be, an affinity to her. But notably, he keep an element of his own colour, while she drops it completely. He is not that dedicated to the initial act, not as much as she is.)

So, Bloberta holds her identity in a death grip and wears red as a trophy. However, she became a product of her own environment first, and locked it on herself second. Red is what she needed to survive among her family and friends, not necessarily what she truly was. Now, of course, it's what she it, the Self she accepted and built up.

Her red is very different from Clay's red too. She has a potential to be whatever she wants actually, she has much more agency than Clay in terms of independent existence. She is versatile and resilient, she is flexible and capable of big achievements if she puts her mind to it. In her case, red = strength, power she actually has, and, in extension, the power of Self that Clay actually desires but lacks.

They are different in their approaches and attitudes, routes the took etc., but in the end they arrived to the same result. They are two parts of the same disaster, one whole broken system.

Orel is next.