#off to reddit to read episode discussions

[productivefairy]

Your guide to REAL selfcare

If you go on any social media and type "selfcare", all you recieve is pretty girls doing extravegant skincare, dior makeup and all. But the problem is everyone does the same thing and things just cant work same for everyone. Also, It doesnt feels authentic rather it feels like consumerism. So, I am gonna tell what to do so you feel the best.

Knowing yourself:-

You can only do yourself a favour if you know yourself and the best way to do that is JOURNAL.

If you are new to it, then you can search journal prompt ideas on pinterest and make that a part of your routine. It helps so much.

Do shadow work. Go on pinterest and do the same thing.

Dont be ashamed of yourself, rather accept yourself and change for the better. When you'll journal then you will get to know tons of good and bad things about you but our brain loves to focus on negative things so u might get stuck on that.

Record your likes and dislikes. Which books you loved, which dramas you adore, which food makes you comfy and which movies you wasted your time on. Record these things, this is just so fun and helpful when you feel "bored" or sad.

Being Mindful:-

Most of the time, the problem is not that big but our thoughts just traps us and we feel that problem is bigger than it might so take a step back and try to not overthink about past or future.

I know this is easier said than done but meditating helps a lot with mindfulness.

When you watch a movie or drama or even ytube video then just do that. Dont scroll reddit reading the "discussion" thread of the episode or try to find instrumentals on spotify for reading books. Just do one thing at once.

Dont multitask. Just take a task and then focus on that. (This might not work for neurodivergent people.)

Do 5,4,3,2,1 grounding technique. Identify

5 things you can see 4 things you can feel 3 things you can hear 2 things you can smell 1 thing you can taste.

Cut negative people off

This is so hard because you feel mean for doing this but once you cutoff toxic people who just drags other people down and all they talk is negativity then your life become so much better.

Cut off all the negative content you watch and limit the time you spend on social media.

Do your future self a favour

This is truly the best selfcare.

Study hard cause' your future self will thank you for letting her be the top student

Learn some skills. Read those books. Watch that documentry. Do things that will make your future self proud.

Some selfcare ideas

Organizing and planning

excercise or take a walk.

Reading books.

Cleaning your room

Watching fun movies

Studying about yourself. Knowing what products suits your skin and your hair. What color brighten you and what makes you look dull. What haircut looks good on your face and what clothes flatters on your body.

Get your nails done.

Listen to your fav album while painting, baking, or gardening.

Do your hobby without feeling presurrized. No you dont need to read 50 books a year, chill out and enjoy while doing it.

Dairy writing. Its so fun to read what your day looked like on a random tuesday after 2-3 years.

Explore new things in your hometown. Maybe there is a new cafe that opened 2 weeks ago or there is a hiking trail you are not aware of? its always fun to do that.

[carigm]

MAJOR POTENTIAL SPOILERS/LEAKS REGARDING S5 (WARNING)

Last Spring/Summer, a semi popular fandom account on Twitter got sent some leaks about S5, focused on the first half of the season. At this time, many fandom accounts were receiving supposed leaks, so our attention was a bit scattered and we didn’t focus on any of them too much. A popular leak account on Twitter (unrelated to ST) also mentioned that they had gotten the first half of S5 leaked, and that this source is “never wrong”. Now, it is hard to tell if these leaks are the same as the ones that the specific fandom account I’m talking about received, but something to keep in mind. Her leaks were given to her by a person named James (which I assume is a fake name). These leaks were also posted on Reddit, last year, by her (the person in the fandom that got the leaks from James) but some major things were omitted in that post. I’m gonna leave a link here in case you guys want to read the discussion.

I’m sharing these leaks with you because some things from them are kinda lining up with what we’re seeing from S5 production. Keep in mind that these could be fake/wrong, and James himself said he didn’t have info on the last couple of scripts.

According to James, Mike dies in Ep. 3. I’m adding more screenshots later for more context, but the gist of these leaks is that Mike bites it, mlvn never breakup nor do they get a resolution, and Byler is left up to interpretation but never really happens. (I don’t really need to get into how shitty this all is writing wise)

Let’s go over the things these leaks might have potentially gotten right, according to what we know so far.

1. James said that the time jump would occur in ep. 1, after an establishing scene where S4 left off. He said the time jump would place us in late 1987/early 1988. He also mentioned there would be a series of flashbacks showcasing stuff from before the time jump. The dates he gave do seem to be accurate, and David Harbour had a shaved head right before they went into filming, which could imply pre time jump scenes.

2. According to him, after Mike dies, they find a letter he had been writing. Some of us were theorizing Finn had a letter in his back pocket in those rooftop pics. Could’ve also been Finn’s script and he just stuck it there (who knows).

3. He said that Joyce gets badly injured in ep.3, and since there’s speculation Winona was seen filming at the hospital, some people think that means she was taken there because of her injury. It’s important to notice that Natalia, Cara, and Finn were also supposedly seen filming at the hospital, and that the production called for many extras for nurses and paramedics. So whatever they’re filming at the hospital, it might be bigger than Joyce getting injured in her leg. Let’s remember Max is at the hospital too. I’m not 100% sold on this part of the leaks.

4. Today it was revealed that they’re setting up to film at Stone Mountain. (This is where they filmed UD scenes for S4)

Apparently production might have purple tentacles out already. (UD vines?)

Cara Buono mentioned, in that video shared by Ross Duffer, that she was filming stuff from Ep.2. This was around 2 days ago.

The people that know about the leaks think this is where Mike dies in ep. 3. Here’s some further context:

Here’s some stuff he said about mlvn:

Which is just….meh, because like I said, it doesn’t look like him and El ever breakup before his supposed death. Plus Byler never gets any resolution.

Now some things that might disprove the leaks (I’m trying to be impartial here)

1. These leaks mentioned Argyle a couple of times, saying he has a hero moment at some point. Eduardo made it sound like he’s not coming back to the show, but tbh he could just be lying. He’s listed for ep.2 on IMDb (and yes I know anyone with an account can edit that site)

2. These leaks say that Mike is very insufferable for the 3 episodes he’s alive, basically lashing out at everyone, specially El, and just overall behaving like an asshole. I really didn’t get that from the ElMike rooftop scene, in fact he seemed very gentle with her. People that know about these leaks think that the rooftop scene is Mike maybe apologizing to El and them having a heart to heart, right before he dies (no comment).

All in all, if Mike is dying this early, I’m sure we’ll know soon enough. The rest of the cast is gonna be filming for like a year, and Finn will be done in like two weeks 💀

I also hope there’s more leaks soon (on Reddit) so that we might compare them to these and see wtf is up.

I know someone is gonna inevitably ask why leaks would be out almost a whole year before they started filming when we usually get them during filming or post production, but I’ve been told these leaks happened around the time the writer’s strike began, which is when they were originally gonna start filming. I was also told other shows had issues with leaks around that same time.

I don’t want to get too much into the truly awful writing we’re facing if these are real but…First, I believe it’s a total disservice to Mike’s character. One of your mains since S1 and you don’t even offer him the option of dying towards the end of the season? Even fucking Eddie got that. Two, it seems like a very easy cop out for not having to make Byler canon. Let’s just have neither ship be endgame and that way we don’t get queerbaiting allegations. It also stands in a zone too close to torture porn for my liking, because sure let’s kill the character two of the most traumatized characters in the history of TV love most. And yes, it’s also a disservice to El and Will’s characters. And lastly, if that supposed letter vaguely alludes Mike having some sort of sexuality problems (we don’t know atp) it is pretty fucked up they just killed him off like that. Sure let’s not explore any of that, but give a half assed explanation via letter ex machina. This is looking like Supernatural finale levels of bad to me.

Another point, I distinctly remember the Duffers saying, after S4, that they could never kill off a character like Mike because it would be too painful, and that ST would cease to be ST and lose its identity. They didn’t want to be like GOT. I sincerely hope they actually meant this and were not trying to be cheeky or whatever the fuck.

It would be genuinely insane, and quite frankly, a highlight of their lack of writing abilities.

I hope the leaks are wrong, but I felt like it was necessary to warn everyone just in case. I know I’m not watching something this awful.

[craqueluring]

re: this reddit post i found that discusses the idea that bedelia was too focused on being safe from hannibal, and that she neglected to consider the danger of actively provoking will (and his jealousy), who is just as dangerous. she did this by taunting him about how she was hannibal's wife, and with him "behind the veil" unlike will. OP says that bedelia seems like will's primary post-fall target because of this, and mentions the end credit scene of bedelia in TWOTL. (i really recommend reading their whole post! it was a very interesting observation and theory)

i am going to work with this idea that will is jealous of/angry at bedelia for her being in italy with hannibal instead of him (because will was supposed to be the one hannibal ran away with), and that the end credit scene of bedelia is reality.

i think there is significance to the fact that bedelia specifically had her leg (and most likely the rest of her limbs) cut off, cooked, and eaten by will and hannibal.

who is the only other person we have seen killed this way? gideon. why did hannibal want gideon dead in the first place? because gideon was effectively stealing hannibal's identity as the chesapeake ripper.

both gideon and bedelia were living lives that were not their lives to live. gideon falsely living as the chesapeake ripper, and bedelia falsely living as hannibal's companion, "behind the veil," in will's place.

i also thought it was interesting that in antipasto, the episode switches between the b&w flashback of hannibal cooking and eating gideon's limbs, and hannibal and bedelia's life in europe. i thought this could've been some subtle foreshadowing — as bedelia is living a life that wasnt hers to live, we see what happened to a man who was living a life that wasn't his to live.

as hannibal and gideon eat together, gideon learns about the real chesapeake ripper ("you were determined to know the chesapeake ripper, gideon. now is your opportunity"). i imagine that will and hannibal would do the same thing to bedelia. explaining their life together post-cliff, which what was supposed to happen post-mizumono, to bedelia who was in will's place, living a life that wasn't hers to live.

even further, i noticed that the painting changes in the room bedelia is in from the last time we see her in TWOTL (when will tells her his plan to fake hannibals escape) to the post-credit scene, which indicates that time has passed. so, they didnt instantly go to kill bedelia after the cliff. this time between the cliff and the post-credit scene could be the story of will and hannibal's life together that they explain to bedelia

so, bedelia gets the same treatment as gideon. they both get to see how it feels to (literally) have a part of them, their identity, their lives, taken from them. as they learn about the life they were stealing from the person whose life they were stealing. the divine punishment of a sinner mirrors the sin being punished.

[aeolianblues]

For anyone on Tumblr that's heard the Huge Davies Off Menu episode, what did you make of it? It's the one where guest Huge brings in some Ed/James fanfiction that he found, and reads excerpts he found funny to them. Ed was fine with it, James did not take it too particularly well, at the time I found it funny if a bit awkward and just felt kind of bad for James, but shrugged it off as 1) fanfic is very seldom written with the view that the people involved are necessarily as they are in real life, rather than that they're characters with a backstory inspired by real people, because of course no casual comedy fan that listens to/watches a standup, TV show or a podcast actually knows that comedian as a person, and so it cannot possibly reflect who they are as people. And 2) fanfics are not meant to be read by people they're written about, I suppose. Whatever.

I stumbled across the Reddit discussion about it a while ago, I'm surprised that they got so heated about it. Especially with the whole 'how do you as a person make something and so confidently put it online' thing. I wouldn't think of AO3 as a 'published' site. It's not too different from scribbles in your diary or a standalone blog, is it? In the sense that AO3 isn't promoting or pushing your writing out to anyone else, nor is there any incentive or gain in writing these whatsoever. I'm also personally not in the habit of bullying amateur writers, but I wonder if that's just because Tumblr has pulled me out of that sort of berating thinking entirely.

Off Menu reddit seems to think the author 'crossed a line' with this one, I think if any lines are crossed, it has to be either Huge or the Off Menu creative team deciding to go ahead with reading out that fanfic despite James' comfort levels. Like James has full right to be uncomfortable with people's depictions of him, but the line here lies with whoever decides to read out parts of it to him.

I don't know, what did you all make of it?

[genericpuff]

What the actual fuck are they thinking-

Okay, the caption might seem overblown but... this is not good.

The main LO subreddit has been closed for weeks now. It closed due to the API protests but considering the options in the community poll were to either "stay open indefinitely" or "stay closed until the decision is reversed", there's a tinfoil hat theory going around that the single mod that overlooks that place saw the API protests as an "easy way out", especially considering how hands-off those mods are. By the time the main sub decided to take part in the protests (after the height of the protests were over) it had already been stated by u/spez that they were not going to reverse the decision. Essentially, the LO subreddit is done.

Do you know what's been happening since it closed? Activity in ULO has been skyrocketing, but we've also been seeing a lot more discourse from people who have been forced to stomach the ULO content after having their main community shuttered.

Listen, I've got a lot of issues with the main sub and the things they've done over the past year. There are definitely some really shitty folks in there who have ruined things for those who are just casual readers by just being way too protective of this comic. But that doesn't mean the main sub shouldn't exist. The main sub, as dead as it was by the time it closed, was still an option for people who didn't want blind praise or relentless criticism/shitposting. Though there were people who tried to gatekeep the shit out of the main sub (attempting to make it a "positive vibes only" space) the main sub was never explicitly designed for only praise, and by the time it closed, it was seeing a lot more balance between praise and criticism (to no one's surprise, because criticism has become a lot more mainstream in the LO fandom, simply due to the comic's undeniably tanking). All that said, it made for a nice middle ground. Even I enjoyed going in there and reading people's takes on new episodes every week, whether or not I agreed with them. ULO was not designed to be the only route for discussion concerning LO, it's very specifically run for one specific purpose and that purpose will not line up with those who are now without a space.

Without the main sub, there are people with nowhere to go. Some people casually grin and bear it through ULO, others have gone to /r/LowSodiumLoreOlympus, but considering how dead that sub is also, it's clear the popular opinion is swaying more towards criticism. I can't imagine what it's like to be a community refugee right now.

So what does that leave for those who don't want to use ULO? The Facebook groups, and the Discord. The Facebook groups are probably the most accessible communities - not everyone uses reddit, not everyone knows how to use Discord, but everyone uses Facebook.

So the fact that the Facebook groups aren't going on a small break, but are going on their own 4 month hiatus?

Not only does this further reduce the options for fandom interaction, but this is terrible for the comic. Hiatuses like this can kill long-term retention, and fandom communities are often the best way to keep that retention on some form of life support.

Think of it this way - if I didn't have the ULO community, I probably would have dropped off LO ages ago, cut my losses, moved on. But it's the fact that I have a community to keep in touch with and have fun with that keeps me on this series. This goes the other way as well, into the casual and praise communities - while I'm sure many will still eagerly return in October, for those who are more casual readers, Lore Olympus will essentially be out of sight, out of mind. And that is NOT something you want to happen to a comic that is already losing traction.

I genuinely do not know what Rachel is thinking closing these groups. And yes, I am pointing to Rachel on this decision because she literally runs the official LO Facebook groups. LO going on a mid-season hiatus over the summer when HALF OF HER DEMOGRAPHIC IS HOME FROM SCHOOL is already such a huge risk that will likely kill her numbers; but to go and cut off her official groups from being able to stay connected and talking about the comic during the hiatus, on a platform OCCUPIED BY THE OTHER HALF OF HER DEMOGRAPHIC, LITERALLY ADULT WOMEN ?? What is that supposed to achieve? If she wants to give her mods a break, sure, okay, do that for a few weeks, but four months? Is she so allergic to fans being able to theorize or "figure her out" (because god knows Rachel doesn't like being predictable) or, god forbid, is she worried about giving them too much "freedom" to reflect and discuss the comic during this time without the weekly dopamine distraction hits that they actually stop and realize how shitty the comic is right now?

All I can say is, as much as we're theorizing that LO is going to be getting a 4th season, I really do hope this midseason hiatus is its last. Whatever life this comic has left is being choked out by Rachel and Webtoons' own hands.

And when it does go out, it better go out with a bang. That's the least it can do for itself and its community at this point.

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

I'd just like to say, you put FMAB on my radar again. I never really looked into it before, however I've been considering either reading the manga or watching the anime, how would you describe the series to a newcomer?

A tale of loss, trying to regain your own autonomy, family secrets and the realization of your own fuck ups?

Like the story revolves around Edward and Alphonse who are genius brothers who try to bring their mom back from the dead. They don't, and instead come face to face with truth. “Who am I? One name you might have for me is The World, or you might call me The Universe, or perhaps God, or perhaps the Truth. I am all and I am one, so of course this also means that I am you. I am the truth of your despair."

Like it's NEVER DISCUSSED if this is God. We know them as Truth.

Truth takes Ed's leg, and Al's WHOLE body and then Ed gives up his arm to bind Al to a suit of armour. They are looking for a way to give Al his body back. And like... it's intense.

I honestly would say it's my fav anime series of all time. It's about these boys who were arrogant enough to try to beat Death and got smacked down. They're smart, skilled. They are on top of the world in the beginning. But then they get confronted with 'everything you know is a lie' and they have to face this. They have to come to terms with this.

Their father walked out? Well, turns out he had a reason to! (He's still a shitty dad)

Oh hey, you know that thing that could save your guys lives? Guess what it's powered by! Human souls! Meaning you have to go against your morals if you want to use it!

Hey, so everything you thought was true? NOT.

Then the side characters? Oh my god, they're amazing. Badass women, dorky but skilled men, the villains are epic, and I just.... AHHH.

And the ending?! No spoilers but it is one of my fav endings because most anime/stories start with someone being raised to godhood, but FMAB? No, this is someone stepping down from their pillar and it is BEAUTIFUL. (I still want to keep Alchemy/Automail for ed though...)

ALSO THIS IS SOME OF THE BEST DISABILITY REP? Like, Ed is disabled. He has prosthetics. They function like his old limbs but they also DON'T.

He lost his dominate arm, and his automail isn't built for writing, so he has to use his other hand. They're so heavy his growth has been stunted. He can't swim. The cold can kill him easier, and the desert? YIKES. Plus they can/do break.

I fully recommend it. I found this old reddit thing once saying to watch the first 23 or so episodes of the 2003 version, then FMAB and I do recommend that. 2003 was being produced while FMA the manga was being written, so they got a good chunk of episodes before they went off the rails. It's not a bad off the rails, but I prefer FMAB for the fucking stellar ending.

(Also again the CHARACTERS. Just YES.)

[gryhmz]

The Coffin of Elfen and Leyley: Incest and Questionable Consent in 2000s Media.

WARNING: This blog post mentions numerous sensitive subjects such as incest, questionable consent, murder, cannibalism, sexually explicit material, and real-life criminal cases. If any of the following is bothersome, I would highly suggest scrolling past this post. Thank you.

ANOTHER WARNING: This post contains spoilers for Elfen Lied and The Coffin of Andy and Leyley. If you wish to avoid spoilers, I would highly suggest clicking off this post and come back once you have finished both. Thank you.

Hello (again), it's grim.

I wanted to discuss an interesting phenomenon that I've taken note of over the past couple of years that seems to always cause internet controversy: The rise of taboo subjects found in modern media.

Now, I want to clarify that I hold very libertarian beliefs when it comes to media. If you can think it, it can be written, regardless of how inappropriate the content is. However, I also believe that there should be consequences to such writings depending on the substance.

The two topics I'll be talking about today are The Coffin of Andy and Leyley and Elfen Lied. These are both pieces of media that I have consumed in the past 2 years, and have noticed a trend between taboo subjects and how their respective authors and/or fanbases have used their taboo nature to repurpose characters and relationships for inappropriate media.

While I believe these pieces of media can be criticized in any manner due to their taboo nature, I would argue in defense of their conception since there is no exact promotion of the taboo nature represented throughout the mentioned medias. I believe this is important to state, for I solely disagree with the creation of media that promotes a taboo and/or illegal act rather than just the representation of such acts.

Images of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley (left) and Elfen Lied (right)

To make this analysis and opinionated piece easier to read, I will be going through my opinions and personal experiences with both of these medias separately. To do this, I will be separating taboo into two subsections:

Illegal Taboo

Questionable Taboo

While I would argue that there is probably some grey area between the two of these, I am simply dividing the taboos into two separate categories because my stance on illegal and questionable taboo slightly changes. Furthermore, the taboos in TCOAAL and Elfen Lied are very different. I believe it would be unfair to compare incest and questionable consent content. Both are taboo, both have been countlessly debated for and against, but incest has stable, concrete laws set against it (at least in the United States) while the other doesn't.

Let's get into the analysis.

Illegal Taboo (The Coffin of Andy and Leyley)

Screenshot from the love/incest route of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley

Oh boy, where do I start. I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting myself into when I first stumbled upon this game. I saw the art style of the game in a YouTube video where the uploader had referred to the siblings as "lovers," which gave me the impression that the main characters of the game were not blood relatives. By the time I had seen the controversy plastered all over Twitter and Reddit about the TCOAAL's "questionable" content, I had already bought the game, which put me in a tough dilemma: Do I immediately refund the game or do I give it a chance?

I bet you can guess which one I picked.

Me being the curious individual that I am, I decided to keep the game. I had a million thoughts rush through my mind about the decision I had just made. What if the game actually has illegal content? People must be exaggerating the situation. I'm sure that the incest claims are probably just false. If it does have a plot that revolves around such content, maybe its just a small tidbit of the game. No biggie. These thoughts did not stop, and I wasn't sure what to do next.

One of the only screenshots from Episode 2 of TCOAAL that isn't horrendous

For a month or so, I avoided the game like the plague. I held off on installing it, I avoided it on Twitter, Reddit, and Instagram as best as I could (for both spoilers and online biases), and I refused to talk about the game with anyone that I knew. I planned to play the game, but I wanted all the controversy to die off first so I could play it without too much backlash. Unfortunately in this world, outrage has become the people's first emotion to anything, so even if your reasoning for such an action is rational and fair, you might still be attacked for simply touching new media without an initial bias.

When I finally got around to playing the game, I was genuinely pleased. Episode 1 has nothing over-the-top, and the incest that people were talking about was yet to be seen. So I didn't think anything of it. I scrolled through my social media and just continued assuming that people were hating on TCOAAL simply for being a new trend.

Then Episode 2 came around.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet: There is incestuous acts and behaviors littered throughout the game, and people online were certainly right.

Below, I have a handful of screenshots that I took showcasing the romantic and sexual tension and acts between the two siblings. There's a bit of it.

(I'm not kidding, all of these are in the game)

Now, I will give TCOAAL fans this, the vast majority (9 of the 10 images) of the incestuous content above is NOT easy to come across. There are very specific routes that you must past through in Episode 2 to come across these screenshots. So it's not as "obvious" as people online made it out to be. In fact, it took me roughly 3 hours of additional gameplay to reach all the different endings for Episode 2, so it certainly is time consuming.

For the sake of time and my sanity, I will NOT be showing how to reach these scenarios. I will only say that you will know if you stumble across the lover/incest route because the NARRATOR THEMSELF warns you NOT to continue down the route.

While I don't think that the incestuous undertones of the story should be the entire definition of the series, I can understand why people dislike it. What is so genius about giving Leyley a romantic and sexual interest in Andrew is that it does one simple thing that the creator wanted to hit home: It makes people uncomfortable. It simply does what every other piece of horror/thriller media tries to do, and it does it well. I don't see it as any more or less uncomfortable as the barbwire scene from Saw I, and the fact that the creator could pull that off just by making Leyley an incestuous, manipulative creep is stunning.

Furthermore, TCOAAL acts as an interesting question for psychology: Does social deprivation, abandonment, isolation, hopelessness, and manipulation play a role in one's moral compass? We see that Andrew's behavior towards Leyley dramatically changes throughout Episode 2 depending on whether you choose to trust and sympathize with Leyley. In addition to a change in behavior, we also see that (most notably the incest route) Andrew accepts his nickname "Andy" again, which he hates due to its connection with a murder that he committed with his sister in Episode 1 (not going into too much detail). It is also noted that Andrew's ex-girlfriend Julia had trouble with Leyley's dominating presence in Andrew's life, which would lead her to stop communicating with him. His degree of whether he cares or not changes based on his sympathy towards Leyley, highlighting how relationships in Andrew's life highly changes based on how much he lets Leyley abuse his existence.

Backstory that showcases Andrew's love interest that abandons him in Episode 1

In short, TCOAAL has many more layers than the internet made it out to be, but the incestuous routes and behaviors between Andrew and Leyley can be seen as concerning. I'll come back to this shortly.

Questionable Taboo (Elfen Lied)

Famous cover art for Elfen Lied showcasing Lucy in the nude.

Now, I watched Elfen Lied in 2022, so I'm just putting it out here that it has been a while since I have watched the anime. Furthermore, I have not read the manga, so my observations are SOLELY off the anime adaptation of Elfen Lied.

Just like TCOAAL, I do NOT think that the story of Elfen Lied is overly terrible. While I do think that TCOAAL has a more sound story line, I do think that Elfen Lied did an okay job at showcasing the selfishness and cruelty of humanity. However, there has always been a part of the show that doesn't sit right with me and many other viewers, and that is Kouta's (the main male protagonist) relationships with Yuka and Lucy.

Throughout the entirety of the show, Kouta partakes in relationships that are considered extremely taboo, especially in the western world. For one, he marries and supposedly procreates with his cousin Yuka at the end of the anime and manga, which is gross and highly disturbing to me, and I am certainly not the only one who feels that way. Almost any search through r/elfenlied would show the outrage and confusion that many people hold towards such a decision. Below are just a couple of what can be found about Kouta and Yuka's relationship (which is also ironically incestuous):

However, one thing that I do not see talked about a ton is Kouta's HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE relationship with Lucy. While Lucy is not human and is considered to be a Diclonius (some sort of humanoid), some of the scenes and plot points feel as if the author wanted to bank off of questionable consent. Many scenes throughout the anime highlight that Lucy is "sexually curious," which makes perfect sense in theory, but is implemented horribly into the anime. Scenes like Kouta observing Lucy's private parts and random butt shots of Lucy just make the entire show uncomfortable, and I would even argue it normalizes taking advantage of the mentally immature for sexual purposes, which could be considered sexual abuse and/or rape (especially since Elfen Lied is a fan service ecchi).

I understand that mangakas and Japanese culture call for the normalization of nudity, but Elfen Lied fails horribly at making a good case. Elfen Lied could have looked over to other medias such as Ghost in the Shell and Imouto Sae Ireba Ii do a much better job at implementing casual and artistic nudity in their shows while still offering tidbits of fan service to the horny. But, I digress.

Nudity is showcased in both Imouto Sae Ireba Ii and Ghost in the Shell and don't face the same criticism as Elfen Lied

Regardless of how I feel about the previously mentioned, I will give the mangaka of Elfen Lied this: They did a great job making the viewers uncomfortable. I would even argue that Lynn Okamoto did a better job making me feel so unbelievably uncomfortable compared to The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, and it's been two years since I last saw Elfen Lied, so props to Okamoto!

My Personal Take on Taboos in Media

(Now that I scroll through images of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley and Elfen Lied, there really are a ton of similarities...)

In short, I do not think that these taboos make The Coffin of Andy and Leyley and Elfen Lied "bad." Distasteful? Sure. Gross? Most definitely. But, my concern for these medias stems from the fact that modern media has failed to hit home the ideas that these might be inappropriate taboos to normalize in modern internet culture. Simply going through tags such as "gravecest" and "coffincest" on Tumblr showcases the questionably deranged behaviors hardcore TCOAAL fans have towards the story's incest plot.

I was fairly surprised to find out the Elfen Lied has not been overly sexualized over the years. While I am thankful for that, I do believe that Okamoto was wrong for writing up a manga and anime that focused on a humanoid character solely for the purpose of being sexually taken advantage of. She could've done a much better job at handling the fan service without making Elfen Lied look like a promotion for sexual and mental abuse.

I believe all that really matters and what can be taken away from this analysis is that taboo subjects can be used in media as long as the intent and the targeted audience work together. For instance, I believe that The Coffin of Andy and Leyley's questionable use of incest as a story principle is okay since the author does not call for the promotion of incest in the story nor does the entire story revolve around the incestuous behaviors of the two main characters. BUT, rule 34 content of the game that showcases such explicit, incestuous acts between the siblings should be criticized since R34 content is solely made for pornographic purposes with no substance to the story's canon. I am also okay with Okamoto's usage of incest and questionable consent in Elfen Lied since it plays into the storyline and theme of the anime, but the fan service showcased in the show should be criticized since it was easily used as a lazy way to throw borderline pornography into the anime, therefore ruining the point of "artistic" and "normalized" nudity.

In short: I don't think using taboos in media should be illegal unless the media in question is a direct reflection of a real-life scenario (like the 2019 Shadman incident), but public criticism is certainly understandable on a case-by-case basis.

Thanks for reading, I am extremely tired.

grim.

[mod-doodles]

Explored Reddit because boredom, here was my experience:

1. Sydney is being defended a little bit more, progress. I wonder what changed, I don’t want to reduce it to this but they have been posting Ayo’s magazine photos.

2. Read this really interesting post about how many times ‘beautiful’ is mentioned in season two. <has anyone else read this post>. The writer claimed they weren’t arguing for or against Claire and Carmy, but interpretations skewed more pro Claire in a diplomatic way. They brought up Molly’s statement that intimacy for Carmy is starring at a woman. Conveniently does not address he spends most of both seasons starring at Syd. But no harm, no foul, it was interesting.

3. They think the romance angle is coming from Sydney if at all, this truly made me chuckle. It’s literally the complete opposite of what we’re picking up, because sometimes I have no read on Syd. Only when Claire appeared or was mentioned, or the latter half of the table scene and the stare off Syd and Carmy had in the first episode of season one reacted as though she had any feelings or interest, she’s so guarded. So that was hilarious.

4. When they discuss the pairing, they still flat out dismiss it. Don’t address any of the one thousand scenes that what suggest romance. Nothing new there.

5. They think Ebon had the best acting, and I’m not anti Richie but Jeremy Allen White carries the show, @moments-on-film addresses this. End of discussion.

6. There was one thing we could all agree on was that the table did not need fixing.

7. They also tried to run a poll on if The Bear’s audience was more male or female. I’m no statistician but I can without a doubt state that running that poll on Reddit would render an deceptive results.

Rating: 3/10 would not recommend, it’s not as bad as when the new season was released but it’s still Reddit.

[shesmore-shoebill]

im just starting to watch the smosh mouth episode with arasha and WOAH was it. a Not So Good idea to check the comments. its definitely okay to disagree with an opinion of a cast member and i know its the nature of youtube comments (particularly smosh’s youtube comments section) to discuss these things, but the number of times i’ve seen people call amanda a “major red flag” or immediately label her as a bad person just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Oof yeah, Im not even gonna look. That's unfortunate, although not too surprising I guess. I tend to not watch a lot of Reddit Stories or read the comments on Reddit Stories for a similar reason lol. As someone who can disagree with some of Amanda's knee jerk takes in gen, and some of todays, I can totally see why her opinions/way of expressing them can catch people off guard/why people might have found it off putting.

But I also generally tend to land in the camp of, at most, like. "well, that's unfortunate. 🤷‍♀️." Honestly, people are perfectly justified to feel put off or surprised or discomfited, but its always worth revisiting what is actually helpful/healthy beyond that reaction. Ive just cut out like another two paragraphs talking about this but suffice it to say. Yeah. Ah man. I hope you can steer clear of the comments for a bit, and fingers crossed we can get more Amarasha with slightly less excitement surrounding it. I also think that a few of the people leaving more vehement hate comments about Amanda have actually done it semi-consistently on a few of these videos, so I'd. Take it with a grain of salt.

Anyway if desired, word dump under the cut on how I tend to view my own disagreement + thoughts on why the reaction can be so vehement. Its a little incoherent because I should've been asleep three hours ago whoops.

It's helped me to understand that a lot of it comes down to:

- The perspective that Amanda tends to approach things from (largely based off her own lived experiences) can be very different from mine. It doesnt mean it invalidates my lived experience or anything, nor does mine invalidate hers, but the base assumptions I'm making vs hers are probably very different. Not mutually exclusive, just different. Not acknowledging the difference means that miscommunication can happen where it feels like direct disagreement is happening when its more that two pretty distinct questions/trains of thought are being considered, with differing, or nuanced answers. Given different contexts, I might agree with her a lot more, or less!

- The kind of discussion that she and the others are going for- aka, often gearing for a baseline amount of, if not optimizing for, entertainment/comedy- is probably also different from what I might want/expect. (Like a deep dive on philosophy or logistics or just specific answers to questions/thoughts I have). Expecting a deeply nuanced, meticulous and fully considered discussion in a podcast intended for discussion and bits hosted by two comedians is probably not going to pan out for me. Or TL;DR Amanda might double down for a bit, not to actually die on a hill for an argument.

- In general I think Amanda holds opinions strongly- esp ones informed by her personal experiences AND loves committing to a bit. i went on a spiel already in the replies here chatting about some of this. But basically it comes hand in hand with the confidence that i really admire about her, and I don't generally feel like invalidation or malice is intended. If prompted to walk through her reasoning, I can typically see where she's coming from, even if I don't agree, and its nice to think vice versa might be true. But I probably will never know for sure!

- Generally it's not the end of the world TO disagree. its just like that sometimes. If it feels like the disagreement means the other person HAS to be a "bad person", its good to revisit that instinct and understand why. What assumptions are you making? Is it defensiveness or disappointment? etc etc. I don't have to convince myself of anything, but if I'm having a strong emotional response, it's good to know why.

- Arasha especially was helpful for clarifying elements of the above! But you can only ever get so much clarity. So yknow. Like at a certain point, no matter how much brain gymnastics I do, its not a discussion between me and Amanda or whoever I disagree with. So at a certain point, I need to be OK with whatever info I have + my takeaway. Whatever that looks like.

- Above all else, we don't know these people!

sorry i was gonna make this more fun but i need to sleep, and will probably be busy enough tomorrow that i didn't want to leave this in my box. TL;DR. yeah. its unfortunate. Steer clear of comments there for a bit, things'll even out. I hope that helps!

[66sharkteeth]

I've been rereading City of Blank before it gets censored, and I just wanted to say I love it just as much as I did when I first started reading 3 years ago, if not more so now that I can see plot elements being set up and foreshadowing, etc. It made me sad to see you on twitter/X talking about how S1 isn't good. I can understand being hard on your own work, I'm like that, but why S1 in particular? I really like it! I could make notes as I go through listing out each and every thing I love in every chapter and I'd be doing it for ages. I've read a ton of web comics before and after finding CoB and yet it remains my favorite even still, including S1. Ignore my question if you want, I don't wanna bother you, but please at least accept the compliments because you deserve it and more, thank you for sharing your story 💜

Hmm, to be clear, it's not like I think season 1 is a steaming pile of crap or anything... I just think it's...nothing special and not particularly good.

I think it's biggest issue is it's pacing. S1 feels like...2 or 3 episodes, all stretched out into 25 episodes. A big part of this is because I was told they wanted s1 to end on Jericho's reveal, and back then, they didn't want first-time creators like myself committing to 50+ ep seasons they weren't sure they could keep up with. And honestly, not a ton happened between the first ep and Jericho's reveal. In hind sight, there was a lot more I could have done. I could have had Rex bond with Des and Lyss more, and just...given Lyss more screen time in general. I know so many people dropped the series because Lyss is introduced and when boy meets girl in media, they assume there's gonna be SOME romance there...but then Lyss just kinda fucks off and is asleep for literally 2/3rds of s1, losing that entire audience. Even if...Lyss didn't end up being the love interest, I wish I kept her around more to at least give people the false hope that she would be so I could have just maintained that huge part of WT's audience LMAO.

But instead, half of s1 was spent on that night on the town with Rex and Des and fighting Claude. These are things that crossed my mind when writing it but... I don't know how else to put it other than back then I just had the mindset of "eh, good enough." And on that note, I think the story just wasn't nearly as personal to me back then. I remember literally telling people like "It's nothing deep. The blanks don't represent anything. Sometimes people just wanna tell a fun story." Which...to be clear, 100% valid to people who wanna tell stories like that! But uh... by the end of s2, that stopped being the case. And this story became very personal to me. It became really impossible for blanks and their struggles to not represent things deeply personal to me. Around end of s2 is when this story started to be a lot more than "just a fun story w/ no deeper meaning" and when I really really started to pour my heart into it, and I LIKE to think it shows, because s3 is hands down where I'm most confident in my writing, compared to s1, when it was just trying to be a safe shonen adventure.

Lastly, going back to s1, I guess I kind of underestimated just how much this would end up meaning to me, and how having a weak-ish s1 would impact me 3 years later in s4. Back then I wasn't thinking about how the audience I get back in s1 is only gonna be a fraction of the audience you maintain in s4. I didn't realize there would be literal discussions on Reddit of comics people dropped and CoB being one of them bc of a lackluster s1. I wasn't thinking about how I would eventually be showing this to agents and publishers and that they might not look past it beyond s1 as just very average, mid content.

I was really just kinda in the mindset of "This is just Canvas 2, and if people like it, they like it!!" I wasn't thinking about how not putting 100% into s1 was going to potentially cost me thousands of readers, dollars, and even potential opportunities.

So TLDR, I don't think s1 is the worst thing ever, but a lack of heart, ambition, certain conditions, and just experience made it very lackluster in my opinion. I wish I could put a huge disclaimer on the series "IT GETS BETTER I PROMISE"

[astarlightmonbebe]

Hello! I just finished watching the Netflix kdrama The Glory on an overnight bus and of course the next thing to do is go on Tumblr and read essays on people's favourite bits of it and I loved your post about how Yoo Jeo-Young is just slightly off and how interesting that makes the character rather than boxing him in.

I was wondering if you have posted or reposted anything about the role of the shaman (i think?) that Yeon-jins mother visits often. Aside from trying to understand the overall role of the shaman in the plot (i got confused hehe), the scene i want to understand is using the ritual as a means to strike fear into yeon-jin (which is also a very interesting scene and I want to read up about it). To my understanding the shaman appears to be possessed by Yoon So Hee but also chants her mother's name, and gets cursed by Dong-eun maybe?? It was such an interesting moment and I wanted to clarify what was going on and also read into it a little.

But I love your takes! So fun to stumble upon your blog!

hi!!! thanks for reaching out. embarrassingly enough i have to admit that i never got around to watching the last two episodes of the glory (maybe one day), so i don't think i actually saw that scene, but i did find a reddit thread that seems to discuss it.

[bohemian-nights]

Did you read the last leaks on Reddit on the finale of Hotd? I don't know if i should cry or laugh omg 😭🤦 So, apparently Rhaenyra is meeting Daemon first, to tell him to not proceed with his plan on taking King Landing cause wouldn't be necessary since she is about to make some deal with Alicent to stop the bloodshed. Daemon tells her she can't trust the Greens, and she's a fool again on doing that. Rhaenyra tell him she trust Alicent cause does know she wants end the suffering of her children and she say she's the queen and she decides, they fall out and he end up abusing her again 💀 Streets saying is either pushing or slapping this time. She runs away from him while he yells at her she's weak like her father Viserys. Camera focuse on Daemon's angry facial expression who's defenitely thinking about plotting something. Rhaenyra leaves Harrenhal's castle and flies away with Syrax going to Dragonstone, waiting for Alicent. Alicent arrives there and they will discuss about negotiation of peace and seem they've reached a deal, after Rhaenyra apologizes for Blood and Cheese bending down 😂 (The cruel my ass) but....Brace yourself i laughed my ass off here. A messenger of King Landing shows up by the end of the episode warning both queens that King Landing is under attack by Prince Daemon Targaryen! Close up to Rhaenyra shocked face and then on Alicent's facial expression, who looks terrified for the fate of her children. The end.

So, basically Daemon is taking King Landing on his own ah ah i wanna cry this sounds so fucking bad for Rhaenyra's character and i don't even like her. The writers really do hate her.

Season 3 gonna open with the fall of King Landing, yes, but orchestrated by Daemon

Are you laughing or crying? Kind of both lmao

If they are at all true I’m over here like this:

I hate that they are making Daemon into an abuser(again; he isn’t wrong about her being weak, he still shouldn’t slap her though), but I can’t help but laugh at the fact that these racist selectively illiterate clowns were abusing and harassing people for months over the obvious.

If anyone thought that Dumbnyra would be okay after he choked the love of his life out mere hours after she just gave birth they were being irrationally delusional. That ship sunk a long time ago.

(They’ve only clung on this long because the books has Daemon abandoning their self insert to become dragon BBQ 🥩 while he saved the actual woman he loved).

That man does not care about her no more than all the rest. Everything pales in comparison to his love for the now deceased walking corpse and his hate for the Greens🥦.

Now I want that to change, and for Daemon to actually free himself from the shackles of Valyrian supremacy, learn how to love(Nettles and Daemon can heal each other thank you very much), and let go of his hurt over Gollum and the Greens but I can’t say I’m really butthurt over the rest🤷🏽‍♀️

[sureokyeahwhatever]

to assist any fellow dumb people who were PRETTY SURE that the phrase "Sousou no Frieren" was a pun or wordplay or something but you weren't really sure

(arguable spoilers for up to about episode 9 or so)

When the demon guy called her "Frieren the Slayer" and the cool title card dropped that said "FRIEREN THE SLAYER", you probably caught on to the fact that he literally calls her "Sousou no Frieren" (which is what the title card says in Japanese, which is way cooler bc it's a hokey title card drop like 2+ hours into the series and that's hilarious). I read the manga before I started watching the show, so I didn't get the audio cue the first time around.

The official translation of the title is "Beyond Journey's End" which is perfectly fine. This isn't a discussion about "how to translate something and retain all the original meaning" because that's obviously impossible. You probably also have seen that lots of places call it "Frieren at the Funeral" which is probably more literal to the most common usage of "Sousou" (a two kanji word with the respective meanings of "interment" and "to escort/send), which is (more or less) used to mean "see someone off" in a sad funerary sense. It doesn't mean "funeral" literally, since it usually implies the literal act of attendence, it's kind of like the word "exequial" in English in that sense -- it doesn't mean "funeral", it just kind of... implies "funeral" and all of its (usually) sad connotations.

So, we have a few different translations from "Sousou no Frieren", depending on context : "Frieren the Slayer", "Frieren at the Funeral", and I guess if you wanted to really try to wrap those up into one you could say something pretentious like "The Exequial Frieren". There's a cool parallel here with English, where we have two really goofy devices that would very literally fit here -- "funeral-bringer" and "funeral-goer" -- which Japanese has very neatly mashed into one very cool "Sousou".

So yeah. She "sees off" her old adventuring companions at the end of their life, and she also "sees off" the demons that she kills. Frieren the Slayer and Frieren the Funeral Goer as literally "Frieren: the one who sees us off at the end of our lives". Neat!

(source: like 3 Reddit threads and 4 or 5 japanese to English dictionaries. I don't speak a word of this stuff. I just got to that title drop where the guy says "Frieren the Slayer", turned swiftly to my wife and went "wait is that a fucking pun" and wanted to save others from the humiliation of having to go on reddit to figure it out)

[aroclan]

i read sounds fake but okay (the book, authored by the podcasters) and it does not cover anyone allo aro. it also has no awareness of loveless aros, non-sam aros, or apl aros. it even includes a "what makes us human is... love! of all kinds!!" section to finish up the book.

tl;dr: this is, first and foremost, a book about asexuality, by an asexual and a demisexual. to broaden their perspective, they surveyed/interviewed ace and acespec people for additional quotes. throwing in the greens on the cover, and having separate aro and ace flags as the section break within chapters, makes it promise something it never delivers.

i also checked their podcast, which is how i found out this book is one year old (as of recording an episode for release on 25 Feb 2024), meaning the writing process itself probably happened in 2022. given the lack of perspective, i had not expected it to be so recent.

(going to cut the rest of this because it is long)

the focus on and centering of asexuality while borrowing a bit of the aromantic symbols seems rude at best for people who are clearly aware of the difference between aro and ace. they discuss the split attraction model early on, and they consistently use aspec, acespec, and arospec accurately. oh, and they happen to run what might be the biggest aspec podcast (as in, the only podcast I could name if someone asked me, "are there aspec podcasts?")

i also noticed that alterous attraction rates a mere footnote with a brief definition (and that definition is "between platonic and romantic") when one person being quoted used it. somehow, this doesn't come up for discussion in the relationships chapter. or anywhere.

overall, i got the feeling that the authors were approached with a book deal based on their podcast, but didn't actually have much to say. or just, like, phoned it in. it's a relatively short book. it dives deep into an AITA reddit post because apparently only that one person could be found for the topic of housing. and that's a topic that would have to be revisited to pad out the final chapter.

[i wanted to know what other people thought, so i checked reviews, and the answer is: there's a lot of criticism of the authors' position that you can hate JKR but like HP. accurate and valid; i have nothing to add to that.]

i wanted to be objective, so i scanned the book again. out of 82 quotes, Phoebe gets 3, and Rai gets one. Phoebe, she/they, responded as ace but realized they were bisexual (allosexual, alloromantic, trans) afterward; Rai, they/them, included neither an acespec label nor allosexual.

ten quotes are from people who use a sexuality label other than asexual:

2 gray-ace

4 demisexual

2 aspec

1 acespec

1 aegosexual

(i didn't track individual names; Phoebe and Rai just stand out.)

so in the final accounting, five of every six quotes are from people identifying as asexual, and none are from people who are unequivocally arospec and not acespec (including loveless aros, non-sam aros, neu aros, unit aros, allosexual aros, and aplatonic aros. and yes, there is overlap between those terms, but they all have zero representation in the text.)

i want to be clear before signing off... it's not that i think everyone should know everything about our community, necessarily, but i do think that people who claim to write for the whole aspec community owe it to us to be well-informed and inclusive before publishing.

[chrysoula]

Classroom of the Elite

(Note: I have read up to Y2v6 (I'll probably read v7 tomorrow once my housemate finishes it) as well as a summary of the Y0 bonus book.) I really like this series. I think the author is skilled, intelligent and literate. I also think he's writing way above the level of his primary readerbase. Or at least, that's the conclusion I am drawing from going through the subreddit. Maybe it's just reddit, though. Why do I like it so much? I have friends who bounced hard off it because the narrator is such an overpowered isekai protagonist (although it's only an isekai metaphorically). He's pretty much superhuman in most ways. But that's never been the sort of thing to drive me off, as long as there's more going on than a power fantasy. I watched episode 4 of Solo Leveling yesterday and it bored me to tears. I kept comparing it to early Danmachi and early Kumo Desu, both of which had me deeply invested in their boss fights. And this is because Kumoko was being clever and fighting above her weight class (and got the shit kicked out of her). And Bell, while a lot less clever, had emotional growth worked into his minotaur fights just like a proper shonen protagonist. Meanwhile the protagonist of Solo Leveling started out interesting and sympathetic and clever but could not make me give a shit about his totally optional battle with a giant snake.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka is OP by any measure. But that's the point of the story. He starts out OP, and also 'defective'. He's not a hero. I'm not even sure he's a protagonist. He seems to see himself as the antagonist; he's training Horikita and her class up to be the protagonists. He's clever and manipulative and impossibly badass physically, and his personal development over time is obscured by being an unreliable narrator, but there are bits and pieces that add up over the 20+ volumes I've read that make him just as fascinating a character as the students he's helping 'grow'. One of my enduring interests is exploring how human nature works, and from the beginning that's been the point of the story. Kiyotaka has repeatedly referred to the paradox of his goals at the school. He wants something he doesn't entirely believe he can get, and he's striving for it as hard as he can. It's just that his goal isn't 'saving his sister' or 'defeating the demon lord' or whatever, it's 'being defeated in such a way as to prove his father wrong'. That's really compelling to me! Especially when combined with his own character growth. Over on reddit, people say things like, "Why would Ayanogod lie to the readers, that'd be lying to himself, people can't lie to themselves..." which, I mean, that's a very... young point of view. Which is why I'm ranting to the void here rather than trying to find thoughtful discussion there...

What I've been noticing a couple times in the last few books is Ayanokoji noting that he doesn't have the social skills of the far more socially deft students _right now_. Because he didn't construct a socially deft persona; he constructed an Ordinary High School Dweeb persona. The obvious implication is that he _could_ be anybody he wants, with some prep time. He might not start out good at it--he has never been good at emoting even when he seems to think he is--but he'll keep learning until he is. This isn't interesting to me because 'oooh ayanogod is so cool' but because it suggests his own sense of identity is pretty flimsy. And the edges and fragments where he's slowly developing an identity are just... peak coming of age story, and his particular degree of OPness is just... keeping things interesting. In y2v6 I noticed his interactions with Mii-chan a lot. At one point, when Mii-chan doesn't need any more than a slight push to work through all her issues (and this is without heavy interference from Ayanokoji). He describes her as a 'almost a fully complete person'. I think Kiyotaka (yes, also Ayanokoji, I switch between his names by vibe) would be the first to admit that he's a deeply flawed and incomplete person as he is. And that's great! That's awesome! That is what I want to see as an enjoyer of OP characters. Being able to punch out Cthulhu isn't the be-all and end-all of personhood! (I am also a fan of Nobilis and Reinhard van Astrea.) I have no destination with this post. I just wanted to babble. If you came here via the tag and find what I have to say interesting, let me know and I'll say more of it!

[lycanlovingvampyre]

MAG 110 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: putting up a new fence

This is one of my favorite episodes!

Okay okay, everybody is like Tarantino here, Tarantul- aaaah Tarantino there. But what about Neil Lagorio!! I have been puzzled about this for so long... Because when I think of "the name in practical creature FX", I think of Stan Winston. But the stop motion doesn't add up. Here I would think of Phil Tippet or Ray Harryhausen. Not sure if Harryhausen isn't a bit too old, already starting his career in the 40s and 50s, while Stan Winston and Phil Tippet started their careers in the 70s - like Lagorio. Stan Winston also has the parallel of suffering from an illness and eventually succumbing to it. I mean it's totally possible that it's a mix of FX artists. But I would really love to know if there was an inspiration.

"But we are the true artists. A director may quite literally call the shots, but it is the cinematographer that makes them. We choose the angles, the lighting, pretty much everything that you see on the screen. The camera is a brush, and we are the hand, the arm, the eye. The director’s basically just the mouth, making pointless noise while the hand does the actual work. Almost every famous director that you know who has a distinctive visual style has simply managed to lock down a talented DoP." Yes, yes, this is about visual here, but can we please take a moment and think about the hilarity that is Alex, the director of TMA, reading a statement that roasts directors?? OMG wait, didn't the statement-giver in MAG 108 also roast the director? And it's also read by Martin/Alex!

"If you’re wondering how easy it is to recreate shots that only exist in the hazy memory of an eccentric, or to frame scenes when you only get the typo-riddled script the morning before, I can tell you: not easy. Not easy at all." Maybe it's all a bit much?

"Dexter clearly wasn’t sleeping. He had insisted on using old equipment, and avoided digital almost entirely, to the point where several of the crew were using pieces of kit they’d never even seen before." Hm, I mean, none of the statements record digitally, not just Web ones. But it's the Web that needs them on tape...

"I stood there, unable to step inside, not because of fear, but because this space inside was threaded all over with film strips. Up and down, one side to the other, wrapping around and through each other. I gingerly reached out and touched one. And as I did, Dexter seemed to emerge from the darkness. At first I thought he was taller than usual, but then I realized that he was suspended ever so slightly by the strips of film, his feet a good couple of inches off the floor." A fine material to spin a web with ::::)

MARTIN: "I mean, I think it sounds like a Jurgen Leitner book. About spiders. Hm. Good John didn’t have to read this one, anyway. I know he’s not a fan. Although, this one wasn’t too bad, actually! I – yeah. Anyway." The last episode featuring Martin, MAG 108 was a Lonely statement and he also said it wasn't too bad. And now it's a Web statement and he doesn't find it too bad. Walking along a thin line of Lonely and Web there.

Hm, that transition into the tunnels was a bit quick for my liking..

Something distantly related. I was looking up something in the episode discussion posts on Reddit a while ago, initially looking for something in MAG 111. Somehow I also took a look at this episode. There were people discussing the possibility of Elias being Jonah! Like, HOW? How did they predict that at this point? I mean, Martin and Basira are talking about Elias' memory insertion ability and people in the Reddit post also talked about this and about him potentially being able to insert memories of an entire life - bodyhopping like this. There were also discussions of Elias possibly targeting Martin next, but yeah... There was also something about the statement - the Web being close to the Eye? It was a Web statement, but cameras are usually Eye.

@a-mag-a-day