#theory of operation

[tofixtheshadows]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Kabru deprives himself.

Kabru as a character is intertwined with the idea that sometimes we have to sacrifice the needs of the few for the good of the many. He ultimately subverts this first by sabotaging the Canaries and then by letting Laios go, but in practice he's already been living a life of self-sacrifice.

Saving people, and learning the secrets of the dungeons to seal them, are what's important. Not his own comforts. Not his own desires. He forces them down until he doesn't know they're there, until one of them has to come spilling out during the confession in chapter 76.

Specifically, I think it's very significant, in a story about food and all that it entails, that Kabru is rarely shown eating. He's the deuteragonist of Dungeon Meshi, the cooking manga, but while meals are the anchoring points of Laios's journey, given loving focus, for Kabru, they're ... not.

I'm sure he eats during dungeon expeditions, in the routine way that adventurers must when they sit down to camp. But on the surface, you get the idea that Kabru spends most of his time doing his self-assigned dungeon-related tasks: meeting with people, studying them, putting together that evidence board, researching the dungeon, god knows what else. Feeding himself is secondary.

He's introduced during a meal, eating at a restaurant, just to set up the contrast between his party and Laios's. And it's the last normal meal we see him eating until the communal ending feast (if you consider Falin's dragon parts normal).

First, we get this:

Kabru's response here is such a non-answer, it strongly implies to me that he wasn't thinking about it until Rin brought it up. That he might not even be feeling the hunger signals that he logically knew he should.

They sit down to eat, but Kabru is never drawn reaching for food or eating it like the rest of his party. He only drinks.

It's possible this means nothing, that we can just assume he's putting food in his mouth off-panel, but again, this entire manga is about food. Cooking it, eating it, appreciating it, taking pleasure in it, grounding yourself in the necessary routine of it and affirming your right to live by consuming it. It's given such a huge focus.

We don't see him eat again until the harpy egg.

What a significant question for the protagonist to ask his foil in this story about eating! Aren't you hungry? Aren't you, Kabru?

He was revived only minutes ago after a violent encounter. And then he chokes down food that causes him further harm by triggering him, all because he's so determined to stay in Laios's good graces.

In his flashback, we see Milsiril trying to spoon-feed young Kabru cake that we know he doesn't like. He doesn't want to eat: he wants to be training.

Then with Mithrun, we see him eating the least-monstery monster food he can get his hands on, for the sake of survival- walking mushroom, barometz, an egg. The barometz is his first chance to make something like an a real meal, and he actually seems excited about it because he wants to replicate a lamb dish his mother used to make him!

...but he doesn't get to enjoy it like he wanted to.

Then, when all the Canaries are eating field rations ... Kabru still isn't shown eating. He's only shown giving food to Mithrun.

And of course the next time he eats is the bavarois, which for his sake is at least plant based ... but he still has to use a coping mechanism to get through it.

I don't think Kabru does this all on purpose. I think Kui does this all on purpose. Kabru's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should be understood as informing his character just as much as Laios's autism informs his. It's another way that Kabru and Laios act as foils: where Laios takes pleasure in meals and approaches food with the excitement of discovery, Kabru's experiences with eating are tainted by his trauma. Laios indulges; Kabru denies himself. Laios is shown enjoying food, Kabru is shown struggling with it.

And I can very easily imagine a reason why Kabru might have a subconscious aversion towards eating.

Meals are the privilege of the living.

[tackletofset]

My wishlist for Dark Rise #3

(more to be added/ subject to change)

Anharion POV chapters

James dressing himself in Red

James aragases Will's "magic door"

Will regains Sarcean's memories (and finds out that the Collar doesn't take away James's free will)

Violet betrays Cyprian to serve Will (foreshadowed by Devon in book 1)

Will and James visiting Sarcean and Anharion’s tomb

Flashback on Sarharion pseudo-wedding (ft. the Collar) (just like the cuff exchange in Captive Prince)

The Returners and white death were revealed to be coming from the Lady/ the Sun King, not Sarcean

Cyprian, Visander and Elizabeth GROVEL at Will's feet for forgiveness

Will goes on full Dark King but using his powers to save everyone

Visander and Philip consummating their marriage honeymoon

[anthrotulip]

May the Force be with us all.

[randomfae]

one thing i've noticed in protocol as opposed to tma is how (so far) in protocol people are given the means to destroy themselves rather than directly attacked/targeted (except for needles, but we don't know the victim's background, only that it was him who approached needles in the first place)

are these the (in)famous catalysts? something (item/ability) given to people who were already in the path of self-destruction to enhance/accelerate said destruction? is ink5oul an agent and their tattoos a catalyst?

as of now i'm not counting mr bonzo's number at the bachelor party since that was a commission from the oiar to artificially mantain balance or whatever... and i guess i'm working on the assumption that the other cases we know were spontaneous, so to speak.

[itsscottiesstark]

Please tell me that I wasn't the only one who thought that this reaction:

when Nina said the infamous "but then again, other people's love lives always seem so much more straightforward than our own", wasn't about him and Aziraphale.

It couldn't have been. What do you mean "he just realised he's in love"?? HE'S KNOWN SINCE THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

One could argue that he simply realised that their love is evident to other people. Could be that.

But he didn't have that reaction during any point in the conversation. "Been together long?" He was confused but then tried to reassure her she'd gotten it wrong. "Is the bookseller your bit on the side?" offended I think is the right word for his reaction. Not at all surprised other people saw what he felt.

The camera sways to him right after Nina's line. About other people's love lives. And how they're much more complicated than one might think. Cause people are complicated.

See, in my mind, that's the look of a demon who just realised that "getting humans wet and staring into each other's eyes" doesn't equal vavooming. This is a demon who just realised that just because he thought it was easy to make the girls fall for each other - which, in his defense, was much more straightforward than his situation with Aziraphale - it didn't mean that it was.

This is a demon who realised he'd seen humanity evolve since day one, and he really should've known better.

[korpuskat]

I am not sure if omnics and humans can actually get married, but I like to think that Ramattra would want to make you his partner «officially». Maybe without the wedding, the papers etc, he would just silently kneel and slip a ring on your finger that he (of course) made himself, just for you. Oh, that’s why he was touching, holding, squeezing your hands more often lately - he was trying to figure out your size, you think. Later on you would notice little engraving on his finger, imitating the ring that humans wear and robots don’t. You are a family.

HIM SIZING YOUR RING HIMSELF...... ENGRAVING A RING ON HIS OWN HAND AAAAAAAAAH?????????????????

What I love so much about Ramattra is that... I think fairly soon after he acknowledges his feelings for you is he would realize you are everything. He's all or nothing, if you crack that shell you are a part of him and he would know so, so early on that you are reshaping his future just by existing... and as such he will have been thinking about this for so long, debating what he could do that wouldn't endanger you or himself, but something that was... meaningful.

[glittergoats]

I got really excited about Legends Z-A yesterday okay

[sincerely-sofie]

Chapter 10 of Sofie Plays "Slay the Princess": The Prisoner (Part 2) + The End

I'M NOT CRYING. I'M JUST ALLERGIC TO POIGNANT STORYLINES OKAY?

[ Beginning ] - [ Previous Part ]

Hey Narrator? Narrator, remember when you said I'm finite and mortal? Narrator, why am I apparently very similar to the Princess in my inability to starve to death? Narrator? Huh? Narrator?

Not gonna lie, before the confirmation that we aren't any closer to death after being here for decades uncounted, I thought that the player character was going to eat the Princess. Glad that's not how things turned out!

I SEE THOSE FEATHER BARBS IN THE CORNERS OF THE SKY. I SEE THAT RED TINT. I HEAR THAT AMBIENCE. FINAL PRINCESS SWEEP LET's GOOOOOOO

It's time for the (presumably) last mirror selfie! Let's see how horrific we look after spending seeming eons locked away!

what

HEY WAIT WAIT WAIT ALL OF THE TIMES "NOTHING" WAS REFERRED TO AS A CONCRETE FACTUAL FORCE ARE FLOODING BACK TO ME. IS THIS A METAPHOR OR LITERAL OR---

*Kingdom Hearts Character Voice* "No, I'm me."

wait wh

Playing 20 Questions with the world's most cringefail loserman and then this absolute bombshell gets dropped

I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE LONG QUIET THING? AND THE PRINCESS BEING DEATH? Y'ALL I THOUGHT YOU WERE LAUGHING AT ME BEING AN IDIOT WHEN I SAID THAT STUFF

YOU FRICKIN' HECKER. SHE'S DEATH IN THE SENSE OF THE TAROT CARD--- ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS. OH MY GOODNESS SHE'S THE EMBODIMENT OF CHANGE.

I asked the Narrator why Death took the form of a Princess and he said "buddy I'm not going to psychoanalyze why you've got a thing for princesses with what little time I have left."

I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE TWO OF US BEING THE SAME BEING ORIGINALLY TOO????????

Okay so. Big ol' conflict with the Shifting Mound. I didn't answer to her during any of it, and now I'm back at the start with the Hero offering to narrate my surroundings for me. What a chad. Love that guy.

We enter the basement with no knife in hand.

I apologized for the time I hurt the Princess, and she pretty much gave me a Look and said "I ATE YOU THE FIRST TIME WE MET. DON'T APOLOGIZE. GOOD GLORY."

"After everything that has happened with this, will you tell me your name?" "I'm fine being called Princess. You never told me your name either, you know." "I don't think I have one." "Then I guess I'll just have to call you Quiet :)" CHOMPING THROUGH A STEEL BEAM THEY'RE ADORABLE

"I don't think I want to be a god." "Me neither. At the end of the day, it just feels like waking up in another basement." OUAGAHAHGAGHHHHH

Told her I wanted to leave with her, but not as gods. To leave the cabin as "just you and me." The Hero was like "Gonna hang back and find the other Voices. This next bit is just for you two. Go get 'em, lovebirds." BEST WING MAN

She hesitated at the cabin door and I asked her if she was ready. We opened it together. And Sofie bursts into tears IRL.

I know there's so much more to this game but I feel like I got the ultimate ending with this. Two offshoots sprouting from unknowable beings and playing at mortality together, forgetting that they know everything for a while so that they can learn each other for the first time again. It's so delightful and I need to let it sink in for a while.

[sableeira]

what number on chuuya’s revenge punishment list do we think is “shooting Dazai in the head” when number 189 (the second mildest punishment) was “spinning him upside down a pole”?

[istumpysk]

I am on the verge of greatness.

[ihatebrainstorm]

I've been thinking quite a while now about Brainstorm's potential origin story and am just using this post as a way to compound/spitball my thoughts/theories/headcanons? I don't know what to call it but apologies, it's realll long:

"Genitus of Operation: Solar Storm", what if Operation: Solar Storm was a military campaign that literally utilized solar storms? Solar storms come in various types, including but not limited to Coronal Mass Ejections (CME), Solar Flares, and Solar Particle Effects (SPE).

Generally the dangers of solar storms are that they can blast radiation, protons, plasma, etc. (depends on the type of solar storm) which could potentially in turn affect satellites/spacecraft, radio communication, GPS, electronics, etc. and funnily enough, transformers (the electrical kind, not Cybertronian kind).

Unless Cybertronian comms also use radio waves that utilize the Ionosphere, or their tech also utilizes electricity, the main danger from solar storms to Cybertronians would likely be the actual outward blast itself. Radiation probably being the bigger danger? Since its been shown radiation does affect Cybertronians (ex: Kup and Nickel's radiation meter probably having some purpose).

A sort of idea I had is that Operation: Solar Storm involved the Autobots utilizing a nearby star's solar storm to take out a large amount of Decepticons via a concentrated radiation blast?

The operation of this kind likely needed a lot of scientists to work on a mass weapon or device to pull it off.

Brainstorm's altmode is a fighter jet, so it's likely he wasn't built with the intention in mind to do science. Instead, my guess is that his purpose could've been either to protect the scientists/device, or (bc he's so disposable as an MTO) get dangerously closer to the sun in place of the scientists? Such as to collect data or to plant stuff there for whatever theoretical device.

Perhaps if this military operation theoretically had a lot more science involved than others such as Simanzian Dawn or Corcapsia Incursion, at some point Brainstorm picked up/was more involved in the science aspect? Especially if it involved building a massive weapon as suggested. During which, he might've had superiors noting him on his intellectual prowess; resulting in him being transferred from combat to research/engineering instead.

A military operation that largely involved building a massive solar weapon could also potentially explain how despite being deployed as an MTO, he never killed anyone? As he'd have less of a chance of seeing active combat.

Also we see him in MTMTE lie about being forged? I always wondered if after he was theoretically transferred, his superiors gave him a new identity/told him to pretend to be forged?? Perhaps they either wanted to not encourage other MTOs to try and transfer, or some good ol' past functionist beliefs were at play I dunno.

Or his origin story could be as dumbed down as: was actually born in the science division or something I dunno, I'm not an IDW writer lmaoo

Sorry its so long, I've sat on these ideas/theories for such a long ass time and needed to spitball them out kdsks- (but also I have the infodumping sickness, hence that semi-irrelevant chunk about solar storms whoops)

[mothocean]

Ok maybe this is kind of a reach but could the statement from this ep have been a (potentially almost successful) attempt at a ritual? The overall feel of this episode is very buried but pretty much all the items mentioned are aligned with various entities. Also all the diff volunteers, 'it's all for a good cause', the location being hilltop road and the people that broke in and burned down the building make me think there was probably a larger operation at play here

[a-polite-melody]

To the people who criticize transunity who say that there is no part of transmisogyny that comes from hatred of men:

TERFs????

None of us are denying that trans women are also oppressed as women; that part of transmisogyny comes from hatred of women.

But uh. TERFs very much base their oppression of trans women primarily on viewing them as invading predatory men (actually, basically all of their oppression of trans people comes from bioessentialism—in other words literally viewing us as or DGAB and nothing else.)

I don’t understand where people are getting the idea that by saying part of trans oppression comes from viewing us as failed versions of our DGAB means that we think it’s the be-all-and-end-all of it? Especially if you’ve actually read more than a singular sentence from the teansunity manifesto. It really feels like people saw a screenshot of one sentence and based their views on transunity on that and only that.

[faceofpoe]

i find the collective fandom curiously credulous of Crosshair's "it didn't work" conditioning explanation.

Not saying he's up to no good or anything but I'm betting it's a little deeper than "eh I'm just not wired for it" - esp from the one of them most readily affected by the chip.

Seems worth noting he seems to still be in the program's orbit when ep 3 kicks off. They haven't given up on him- or are using him for some other purpose within it.

Cue conspiracy theory about the operatives' weaponry

Cue CX-Tech conspiracy theory about the "brother" taunt

[acinomthecat]

Some of my angsty hcs about what happened during and after Operation Blackout

(cw: trauma mention)

Gary still has physical scars from Herbert’s attack, specifically claw scars.

Gary mentioned how he felt more nervous and unstable after being frozen, and assumed it was because the freezing affected his brain, but it wasnt just that, he also developed post-trauma after the attack, and avoided hugs and not letting anyone touch his arms for a while (due to how Herbert grabbed and manhandled him in the trailer)

For some evidence to why i headcanon Gary developed ptsd after Operation Blackout, was because his comments about feeling more nervous and strange happened whenever he speaks as a mascot during his in-game appearance, because a lot of people must have been hugging, crowding, and grabbing his arm to get his attention, accidentally triggering him

Jet Pack Guy became more and more irrational and snappish as more of his friends were captured, but Rookie getting captured was the tipping point and made him try to attack Herbert by himself without a plan, leading to his capture (I pictured Jet Pack as more collected and composed, and would always have a plan)

JPG gave away his jet pack fuel to light more generators and stoves for the civillians, to explain why he wasnt able to escape the crabs

Dot designed the Klutzy and Herbert costume, and even designed the catalog requested by Herbert in hopes of him sparing the rest of the penguins

Dot in the Herbert/Klutzy disguise nearly shut down the sun laser by herself before getting captured, to explain how the EPF was able to obtain the map and layout of Herbert’s hideout

Rookie tried to give as much emotional support to epf agents and keep their spirits up after operation blackout since their base got destroyed

Partially the reason to why Rookie was kidnapped before JPG, because not only did Herbert knew that Rookie was easier to capture, but he planned to also lure out JPG, since Rookie and JPG are really close (yes I ship Jetkie)

[the-real-list-of-ominous-threats]

you will have to watch every game theory video that exists

I used to do this willingly so at the very least it would be nostalgic